Our Client Reference Committee (CRC) was established in 2023 as part of Bedford’s Client Engagement Strategy. The CRC is made up of Bedford clients who access employment, residential and Learning and Experience programs. Each CRC member brings their individual lived experience of disability to the Committee, along with learnings from their Bedford peers.
Bedford works closely with appointed members to build greater understanding and participation, to better shape decisions and work towards a common goal of achieving positive outcomes for clients, ensuring a two-way feedback channel between our clients and Bedford.
The Committee is independently facilitated by Our Voice SA (OVSA). On this page you hear directly from our CRC Committee with members sharing what the CRC is, who they are, what they do and recent achievements, as well as information about OVSA and their role.
What is the CRC?
We are a group of people with disability connected to Bedford.
We come from different parts of Bedford:
- Employees – some members are employees in different departments like cleaning, packaging, manufacturing, or administration and APG.
- Residents – some members live at Bedford’s Supported Independent Living residence, Balyana, at Clapham.
- Learning and Experiences Clients – some members participate in Bedford Learning and Experiences which is a range of programs and experiences from life skills to social activities and the arts.
We listen and talk to our peers. We are the voice of people with disability at Bedford. We give advice and feedback to Bedford, and share our thoughts and ideas.
Who we are?
We are the 6 Committee members of the CRC :
Courtney
Clients Reference Committee Member (Mt Gambier)I used to work in manufacturing for a few years and now I go to Learning and Experiences 4 days a week. I do CRC because I like to help my peers (friends).
Chloe
Client Reference Committee Member (Mt Gambier)I have been at Bedford for more than 8 years, I work in Manufacturing 3 days per week and do Learning and Experiences 2 days a week. I joined the CRC because I like to give ideas.
Harry
Client Reference Committee Member (Panorama)My name is Harry and I have been part of Bedford for 6 years. I work in the Cleaning department as a supported employee, I am also a resident and joined Bedford Beats as part of Experiences. I love playing basketball. I believe that other people deserve to speak up for themselves and others.
Jason
Client Reference Committee Member (Panorama)I work in the Administration team at Bedford Panorama and have been at Bedford for over 15 years. I believe everyone should have a say about their rights at work, in residential services and in Learning and Experiences. I also do the Experiences program over the Christmas break.
Seb
Client Reference Committee Member (APG)I have worked in Bedford's gardening department APG for almost 16 years. I am a leading hand. I drive company vehicles daily and regularly operate the ride on lawn mowers. I enjoy being able to have a say and make recommendations to Bedford as a part of the CRC.
Bedford’s CRC is independently facilitated by Our Voice SA. Our Voice SA is an incorporated peer-led self-advocacy organisation for adults living with intellectual disability. Their mission is to increase the skills and knowledge of people living with intellectual disability in the areas of self-advocacy, human rights and decision-making. They work to ensure the voices of people living with intellectual disability are heard.
www.ourvoicesa.org.au Tel: (08) 8373 8327
Bedford thanks Our Voice SA for their continued support and facilitation.
What we do?
We work with people and groups at Bedford, like:
- Bedford Clients
- Bedford Services and Advisory Leadership Team – Learn more
- Bedford Executive – Learn more
- The Bedford Board
We meet once a month and do things like:
- Talk about things important to us at Bedford.
- Share our ideas and thoughts and suggest changes to things that may not be working.
- Give feedback on things like:
- forms
- policies
- procedures
- different topics
- Work on projects for Bedford.
- Learn new things.
- Do workshops.
- Get information from different parts of Bedford Business units.
- One of our members goes to the quarterly SGC meetings to update on what the committee has been working on.
- One SGC member comes to the next CRC meeting to give updates on what the SGC is working on.
CRC Achievements
We have done a lot of interesting work. Here are some of the things we have done since the Committee started.
- Sharing ideas on what is important to us.
- Writing and presenting a proposal on how the CRC could work with the Board’s SGC.
- Writing and presenting a proposal on how a Family and Carers Reference Committee could work at Bedford.
- Reviewing flyers, forms, policies and procedures for Bedford.
- Giving advice about how to make sure the documents are easy for people to read and understand.
- Presenting at Bedford Community Connect about CRC.
- Completing capacity-building workshops where we learned about self-advocacy, human rights and decision-making.
- Participating in Our Voice’s SA advocacy conferences.