Governance

Organisation Overview

Autism SA is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and registered as a charity. Our Board of Directors is structured to represent the interests of the autism spectrum community and bring a range of expertise to ensure the effective governance of Autism SA.  

In accordance with the requirements of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Act), Autism SA lodged its 2017 annual compliance report with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (Agency) on 7 June 2017. The report is available to download here.

Message from the Previous President

Ms Jenny Karavolos
President
Finance Expertise

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming." — Goethe

Autism SA has been providing services to the South Australian community for fifty years. In our founding year (1964), only 35 families and individuals living with an ASD were known of in South Australia. At the end of the 2010/11 financial year, Autism SA had over 6 200 people registered for support and services. The prevalence in Autism has grown significantly. In 1964 it was reported as 3-4 in every 10,000 individuals and now it is widely reported at 1 in every 88 individuals with growth of 12-15% annually.

Autism SA is now on the cusp of entering a new era of service provision with the government’s wave of reform that will significantly impact individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and how the sector operates in the future–National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), National Disability Strategy, National Partnership (Parents) with Department of Education and Child Development (DECD), and proposed new child development legislation to name a few.  Many of these reforms are also aimed at facilitating stronger connections being made between ASD individuals and their families, health, education and the community.

This dynamic environment provides a significant opportunity to influence improvements and to help shape the sector for ASD individuals to have the best possible path in life to reach their potential.

To this end, Autism SA has continued in 2011/12 to take a strong leadership role in looking towards the future. It has worked hard and invested much effort to ensure the autism spectrum community have a voice in the changing environment to ensure that their needs are recognised and well supported.  This includes being on a number of national forums and the CEO having a number of key appointments within the disability sector.  Autism SA has been at the forefront of South Australia being selected as one of the launch sites for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

This environment also introduces many challenges as the shift is made towards individualised funding, consumer directed services and increased market competition. We will be focussed on creating a responsive organisation that remains relevant and respectful by supporting  individualised and consumer centred services  fostering genuine opportunities, delivering highly valued services, providing a key source of timely advice, accessible expertise,  facilitating connections, advocating awareness and inclusion,  and creating long term sustainability so as to enhance the lives of ASD individuals and their families.

We recognise that major changes need to occur. It will be an iterative and refining learning process as Autism SA evolves that will need the input and support of many people across the autism spectrum community to achieve this. We will be encouraging open and frequent feedback and sharing of information through numerous channels, with a key focus on our community feeling comfortable to provide this feedback in order to partner with us and shape support and services.

On behalf of Autism SA I would like to thank people with ASD and their families and our members for their continuing support. I would also like to acknowledge the contribution by donors, our business and community partners, staff, volunteers, management and the Board for their outstanding efforts to enable Autism SA to make significant advances in line with its strategic direction.

We welcome you in continuing to support and partner with Autism SA as we look forward to a very exciting future - being better positioned to respond to the autism spectrum community and enable opportunities and inclusion in this changing environment.  

The Board

The Board of the Autism SA accepts overall responsibility for the corporate governance of the organisation and is committed to ensuring that the principles of good governance are implemented with integrity. The current Board is comprised as follows:

Annual Reports

2012 - 2013 Autism SA Annual Report 

2013 - 2014 Autism SA Annual Report

2014 - 2015 Autism SA Annual Report

2015 - 2016 Autism SA Annual Report

Autism SA Disability Access and Inclusion Plan

Autism SA has recently developed an new Disability Access and Inclusion Plan (DAIP). It demonstrates our commitment to improving the participation of people with disability across a range of areas.

DAIPs provide a systematic approach for organisations to identify and address barriers to access and inclusion and develop strategies that meet the participation and service needs of people with disability. The plans are active documents that recognise community and cultural diversity and acknowledge the valuable contribution of everyone to the social and economic fabric of our society. Click here to read the plan.