About Us

About Us

Our Vision

"To assist people to achieve the life they want"

Our Mission

"To increase opportunities for people through an environment of learning, experience and enjoyment"

Through

• Being person centred as an agency
• Working towards inclusion and community connectedness for all people
• Building connections between individuals, interchange, community & private agencies
• Developing opportunities for all community members to be involved
• Being an active part of a service system for improving outcomes for all community members
• Fun for everybody involved in the organisation

Key Activities

• Providing quality respite care and support services to families of people with disabilities
• Providing quality recreation, social and life skill services to people with a disability
• Providing opportunities for involvement by all people in the community through volunteering options and community involvement

Values & Beliefs

Interchange is committed to working towards an inclusive community where all members are supported and enabled to be fully involved in their community. This involves the process of taking necessary steps to ensure that every young person is given the opportunity to develop socially, to learn and to enjoy community life.

Interchange has an absolute focus on the involvement and participation of families and people with disabilities in services and the future development of the agency.

Interchange is committed to developing community capacity through links with community agencies and developing and seeking opportunities for groups and individual members of the community to be involved in the service.

Interchange is focussed on the importance of volunteering and the central role of volunteers in the agency with regard to current service provision and the future of the agency.

The principles that drive Interchange Outer East service provision are:

Interchange services are:

Interchange aims:

History

Interchange Outer East was developed by a group of parents and professionals keen to develop an Interchange program (host family program) in the Outer Eastern suburbs. In 1981 the first Interchange program was initiated in the Inner Eastern suburbs and by the end of 1982 Interchange Outer East had their first operational host matches.

The agency continued to grow as a single program until 1990 when it began to diversify and develop other service options to meet the expressed needs of families involved in the service. From that time the service continued to grow and create new programs to meet the needs of families of children and young people with disabilities.

From the inception of the program the governing body has been primarily composed of families and volunteers involved in the service. This has ensured the agency has retained it’s “grass roots” focus and strong cultural basis on meeting the expressed needs of the service users.

To provide choice, education, and opportunity.

View the major milestones in the growth of Interchange Outer East.

The Agency

Interchange Outer East (IOE) is an non-profit, non-government, community based organisation incorporated under the Associations and Incorporations Act. Interchange is governed by a Board of Management elected from the Association’s membership.

Interchange Outer East is registered with the Australian Tax Office as an Income Tax exempt charity and a Deductible Gift Recipient.

For a full financial statement for the last financial year see our 08-09 Annual report

View Interchange policies and procedure documents here