Brisbane: LDS women receive Minister's Encouragement Award
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BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
Sisters and special education teachers, Angela Leneham and Nona Westenrieder, were recently granted the Minister's Encouragement Award as part of 2010 Disability Action Week for their work in supporting people with disabilities.
These sisters, upon realizing that learning and social support for people with disabilities greatly diminished once they left formal schooling, decided to help create a solution for this problem. Together they created The Tertiary PLACE Inc. in Brisbane — an approved provider of day services for adults with disabilities that emphasizes social inclusion and life-long learning, with a particular focus on performing arts, supporting families and animal therapy.
The Minister's Award was granted by Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Minister for Disabilities and Multicultural Affairs. She was invited to visit the institution by local Member of Parliament, Di Farmer, who has been a strong supporter of these sisters and the institution of their creation.
Angela Leneham, one of the founding directors of The Tertiary PLACE is a special educator with extensive personal experience in the field of disabilities. She has worked in both mainstream and special education settings across all years of schooling. She has a special interest in using animals to foster academic and social learning, which led to her recently acquiring a therapy dog named Porridge, and undertaking further studies in companion animal studies. Sister Leneham also has experience in performing arts, having participated in numerous Church and amateur theatrical productions at all levels.
Nona Westenrieder is the sister and a cofounder of The Tertiary PLACE, and an educator with a particular interest in language and culture. She has taught German language and culture to primary and secondary students and is interested in the cultures of the world. One of her driving beliefs in helping to establish the center is the fact that individuals with disabilities are capable of, and have a right to, lifelong learning. Sister Westenreider is trained in facilitated communication, which helps give her great confidence with interacting and communicating with people with disabilities and their families and care givers. She also shares the same passion for the performing arts and, most recently, helped produce two successful community plays for people with disabilities.
The Tertiary PLACE has long been a dream of these two sisters — a dream that finally came true when the doors to its opened in 2010 . They believe what the Prophet Joseph Smith taught when he said, "All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 352).
"We realized that for the majority of special needs students, once school finished there was little opportunity to continue formal learning. Our practice is guided by the belief that people with disabilities can make valuable contributions to society and can achieve, learn and grow throughout their lives," said Sister Leneham.
"Only 35% of our funding comes from government, so we need to conduct much of our own fundraising. We did this recently with a concert of performances by our students with a program that included original songs and piano recitals that culminated in an original musical play," said Sister Westenreider.
Another LDS friend, Mary McKenna, is the coordinator of SportSTAR (Support, Transition, Affiliation, Recognition), which is an initiative of The Tertiary PLACE and provides weekly sport and physical activities for those with disabilities 16 years of age and older.
" We encourage people to get active, get out into the community and have some fun playing sport," said Sister McKenna. "We have already seen SportSTAR participants go from never having played sport to, for example, playing basketball on a team. The physical, social and emotional benefits are significant."
