About Us
Real Life Assistants began delivering NDIS Disability Services in January of 2020 in the Illawarra region of NSW. Because the organisation actively embraced the concept of participant choice and control and offered truly innovative and personalised service options to people with a disability, it quickly became a provider of choice in the region. Demonstrating the need for this type of service, Real Life Assistants has grown substantially in the past two years and now delivers services to 600 participants locally and now employs over 200 staff members.
There are now four distinct departments operating supports in Real Life Assistants. These are:
- Support Work – Direct supports
- Support Coordination – Support Coordination and Recovery Coaching
- Social Enterprise – Supported Employment
- Allied Health – Exercise Physiology, Social Work
Real Life Assistants was founded by Samantha Hill (Director and CEO) and Justine Leonard (Director and COO) who are both actively committed to ensuring that the organisation meets its Mission, Vision and Values, and that it stays true to the ideology of the NDIS and participant choice and control.
Mission
Our mission is to provide a service that offers high quality, flexible supports to people with a disability based on a philosophy of choice and control.
Vision
For people with a disability to receive the support they need to be able to live the life they want to the fullest.
Values
Kindness, Transparency, Choice and Control, Dignity, Respect
Why did we start this company?
In 2018 the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) had completely redesigned the funding process for the delivery of disability support services in Australia so that people with a disability could have choice and control over the supports they received; and so that they could be more included in the community and achieve social and economic participation. In response, Real Life Assistants developed a service delivery model to reflect this ideology of choice and control for participants, and to ensure that people with a disability could receive the support they need to be able to live the life they want to the fullest.
One of the primary focus areas for Real Life Assistants initially was to create opportunities for people with a disability to transition into meaningful employment. This was because it was identified that people with disability 15 -64 who are male have 56.6% workforce participation rate vs. 88.5% for those men without. People with disability 15 -64 who are female have 49% workforce participation rate vs. 76.5% for those women without (ABS stats). Thus, alongside new DES reform, NDIS was seen as a possible solution to address the issue of under participation in the workforce of people with disability. While direct employment of people with disability remains a major focus of the organisation, Real Life Assistants quickly realised that there was a real need local for support services and support coordination services that were built on the NDIS ideology of participant choice and control – over the types of services they received, as well when and how those services were provided.
Real Life Assistants began delivering NDIS Disability Services in January of 2020 in the Illawarra region of NSW. Because the organisation actively embraced the concept of participant choice and control and offered truly innovative and personalised service options to people with a disability, it quickly became a provider of choice in the region. Demonstrating the need for this type of service, Real Life Assistants has grown substantially in the past two years and now delivers services to 600 participants locally and now employs over 200 staff members.
Our organisation is a registered NDIS service provider specialising solely in the delivery of NDIS services across our region.
But Why Us?
Why should customers trust us? How do we make their lives better? What makes us different than other disability support providers?
We are a truly inclusive business who actively employ people with disability, and are committed to creating opportunities for people with disability to be part of our organisation. Our directors have disabilities and have lived experience of disability, as well as having worked in the community and disability sectors for over 18 years.
Our organisation works hard to ensure our services, supports and our treatment of people with disability reflects the core values of the NDIS – and that our participants are treated with kindness and respect.
Because we are committed to people receiving the supports they really need to live their lives to the fullest, we work hard to be flexible, innovative and highly engaged in the services that we deliver. We care about our participants and want them to be able to achieve their goals, so we do whatever we can to assist.
We don’t provide a “menu of supports” or “service list”, because we don’t want participants to be limited in what services they can access through us. We are responsive and innovative in our approach and want to be directed by our participants so that they have real choice and control over the services provided to them. If there is something that a participant wants to do, learn or experience, we are happy to work with them to figure out ways that they can do, learn or experience it!
