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Amaze was thrilled to be announced today as a joint winner of a 2022 Victorian Disability Award.
We were awarded for our Change Your Reactions education campaign in the category of excellence in creating inclusive communities, receiving the award as equal category winners with Lance Nilsson of Doncaster All Abilities Basketball.
“We are delighted to have won this award and to have such an important campaign recognised by the Victorian Government” said Amaze CEO Jim Mullan.
“Change Your Reactions was created to promote greater understanding of Autistic people, and time and time again we have heard the positive responses to it from Autistic people and their families.”
Change Your Reactions is an Australian-first education campaign which urges Australians to take steps to build a more inclusive community that understands, accepts and positively engages with Autistic people.
Our campaign, which included a mix of advertising across regional and metropolitan television, print, radio, digital and social media, was created in consultation with Autistic people and is portrayed by Autistic actors.
Our research has found that while around 80 per cent of Australians know an Autistic person, only 29 per cent know how to support an Autistic person, revealing a significant gap between the community being aware of autism and creating an autism-friendly community.
Change Your Reactions, the first social behaviour change campaign to promote understanding and inclusion of Autistic people in Australia, seeks to bridge this gap.
We extend our congratulations to all other winners of awards today, and to all other finalists. It was particularly great see other leaders in our sector also recognised, including Disability Healthcare Access Service (commonly known as Disability Liaison Officers) who received a runner-up award, as well as the I CAN Network and Chloe Hayden who both won in their award categories.
“It is wonderful to see the positive contribution and all the work being done for disability inclusion in Victoria and we are excited to continue this work,” Jim said.