Events

Have your say: Connection Services

At Guide Dogs, Clients are at the heart of everything we do.

In 2018, during our state-wide Client consultation, Clients told us they were interested in more opportunities for social connection and peer support.

As a result Guide Dogs NSW/ACT has created a new Client Engagement and Connections team (Connections Services) to work with Clients to bring these opportunities to life.

If you’re a Guide Dogs Client or a parent or guardian of a Client, we want to hear from you to help set the direction for our Connection Services for the future. During November, there will be a number of ways you can tell us what you want Connections Services to look like.

Why we are consulting with you

In the Connections Space, it’s our number one priority to receive feedback and input from our Clients. This is called Co-Design, where Guide Dogs and Clients work together on developing and delivering programs.

We’d like to know how much involvement you would like to have in these activities. We also would like to know how we can best support you to be part of it.

The consultation will ask you questions about what sort of involvement you would be interested in and what sort of support we could provide.

More specifically, we would like to get your ideas on:

• What social connection and peer support opportunities you would like?
• What activities or special interests could we shape opportunities around?
• Is it important for you to connect with people on similar low vision or blindness journeys, in the same age group or living in the same area?
• How would you prefer to be kept up to date about Connections Services opportunities?

Consultation Activities

Survey

The survey will take between 15 -20 minutes to complete. You will be guided through six sections of questions:

• Demographics
• What connections opportunities do you want?
• How do you want us to communicate with you about Connections Services
• What partnerships and connections would strengthen Connections Services?
• Working together, how should co-design work?
• Learning while being social, what concurrent skill development and learning opportunities could we include?

You can complete the survey:

• Online on the SurveyMonkey platform.
• Over the phone by calling 9195 6104. Please ask to be connected to a Client Engagement and Connections Coordinator.
• Please complete the survey before the closing date: December 11th.

Small Group Discussions

These discussions will be accessible on Zoom or by phone, and will allow us to talk in more detail about the potential of Connections Services.

Each session will run for two hours and you only need to attend once.

You will need to register and let us know your joining preference:

• Using Zoom
• Dialling in by phone
• Have Guide Dogs dial you into the discussion

Small group discussions times and dates:
Our recent small group discussion dates have passed but we are still very keen to hear from you so please get in touch so we can create more opportunities for small group discussions on demand.

To register for a discussion, please fill out the Expression of Interest form below or contact us via connections@guidedogs.com.au or (02) 9195 6104 and ask to be connected with a Client Engagement and Connections Coordinator.