About Us
The Support Squad Story
Support Squad was founded by Erin Heysed. Erin started working in the disability sector over 20 years ago as a part-time Support Worker while studying a Business and Law Degree. Working at an accommodation service which supported males with complex, challenging and varying needs, she quickly decided her passion was is the disability sector, not law as she originally thought. Over the next few years, she worked diligently and as a result was promoted to the position of Operations Manager, whilst continuing to finish her degree part time. She went on to undertake a disability Cert IV and manage several different disability services before moving into the consultancy field in 2016, assisting providers to navigate the NDIS world.
In 2018 it was bought to her attention countless times that there was a lack of quality Support Coordination services in South Australia. As a result, in 2019 she employed Lahra Clifford as Support Squad’s first Coordinator and together they set out to provide people with disabilities the tools to take maximum control of their lives.
Fast forward 6 years and Support Squad is now made up of a dedicated team, successfully providing Support Coordination to over 400 participants (with no signs of slowing down!) and has branched out to establish a successful and unique adult learning centre with purposely designed and tailored luxurious respite services
Together, the Support Squad team are committed to working tirelessly to create a culture where we transform lives by providing services that honour people’s rights, choice and opportunities.
Our core vibes:
- People have the right to seek a good life on their own terms, with equal access to the opportunities that may contribute to this.
- Service providers should commit to providing ethical services based on positive assumptions about the capacity of people living with disability and their families.
- All people, regardless of impairment, are entitled to have lives with valued status, and to exercise maximum authority in their own lives.
- People should be supported through rights-based and person-centred approaches.
- Service providers can transform lives by providing services that honour people’s rights, choice and opportunities.
OUR VISION IS:
A community that embraces people with a disability, that is respectful and inclusive, that supports them to gain skills and that values their right to choice.
WE ARE ON A MISSION TO:
Provide people with a disability a better life and increased opportunities, essentially to help them thrive!
Here's how we make it happen:
- Promoting skill building and maximum independence
- Promoting maximum personal choice and control
- Promoting the dignity of the people we serve
- Promoting inclusion
- Promoting respect for the people we serve
- Acknowledging and respects the ongoing involvements of families
- Preventing the devaluing of the people we serve
- Putting the interests of the people they serve before the interests of Support Squad
- Ensuring that the person has an independent advocate when matters of conflict of interest arise
- Recognising the need to monitor, measure and report on outcomes for the people we serve
- Acknowledging records and develops treatment plans for mistakes and shortcomings.
Fueled by our mission, we are diving in to:
- Get to know well the people it serves, their needs, aspirations, skills and limitations.
- Be readily available
- Do what we promise to do in agreed timeframes
- Work in ways that demonstrate that we take our values seriously
- Acknowledge that the people we serve are the experts in their own lives
- Give people the tools to take maximum control of their lives
- Look for developmental opportunities that stretch people’s abilities, provide new experiences and support their life choices
- Build relationships with the people we serve, their families, service providers and communities
- Think outside the square in looking for innovative solutions for people
- Be focused on solutions and on achieving real outcomes and celebrate successes
- Fix the things that go wrong and learn from failures
- Advocate for the people we serve
- Call out bad practice
