Our community is focused on creating a profit-for-purpose model. It emphasises ownership at the negotiation table and aims to safeguard the modern NDIS vision, which is intertwined with achieving better life outcomes. We are not meeting these goals across the board in our community or sector. To reach them, we must revolutionise the business model.
We need to harness our imagination to ensure that everyone in our community who wants to achieve their goals has the opportunity to do so. This requires us to address the challenging reality of rights versus costs. The painful truth is that we can only claim the rights we can afford. The NDIS, as it stands, is unsustainable. It does not adequately serve all people with disabilities, and those outside the NDIS system remain invisible.
In our community, we are committed to working together with a profit-for-purpose approach, utilising various tools to transform desired outcomes into everyday practice. Our strategies include:
- Employing quality, competent staff to avoid failures
- Optimizing plans to eliminate waste
- Recognising that not every activity incurs a cost—many are freely available within the community
- Offering services on-site
- Unifying staff, providers, participants, and their families into a cohesive team
- Implementing a sociocracy that amplifies the voices of community members
- Encouraging care in kind and a barter system for additional hours of care
- Promoting employment and enterprise opportunities
- Establishing a core business that hires from within the community and supports its goals
- Fostering an intentional community that prioritises profit for purpose
- Supporting community businesses that promote residents
- Facilitating volunteer work that benefits the community and earns barter hours
- Providing intersectional social support on a volunteer basis
At this early stage, I can share that Uncle Reubens is the core enterprise of our first village. Stay tuned for more updates!