Inala celebrates 60th Anniversary at Kirribilli House
On Saturday night, Inala held a cocktail party at Kirribilli House to celebrate its 60th Anniversary. The celebration was attended by over 80 members of the Inala community including Inala’s patron Blanche d’Alpuget, long-term supporters, parents, Board Members and residents Simon and Bree. The rain stopped just as guests arrived, the sun came out and it was a beautiful evening, made complete with a rainbow spanning the harbour.
Inala Chairman, Mr Bill Best, welcomed the guests and spoke of the pioneering work of Dr Joachim and Mrs Kyra Pohl, who together with eight families bought land at Cherrybrook and established Inala in 1958. Bill spoke of the growth of Inala over the past 60 years and the thriving community that now supports over 200 people living with disability through a variety of individual and flexible Accommodation, Day and Community supports.
As well as an opportunity to gather members of the Inala community and celebrate the 60th Anniversary, the evening was a chance to talk about the real and often urgent need for accommodation support. The Accommodation Inala provides goes far beyond ‘services’, Inala homes are a real place of belonging, not just bricks and mortar but a home with a heart.
Inala parent and Board Member Kim Nicholas, provided an insight into the challenge that parents face seeking accommodation for their adult children with a disability. He mentioned how fortunate his family felt to receive a place for their daughter Genevieve at Inala.
“We feel having Genevieve at Inala is such as privilege and Inala has made a real difference to her life. But we know that many others are not as fortunate and as those parents age and the demands to take care of their maturing children and adults gets even greater, they are not sure of the future for their children and what will happen when they cannot be there. This is a concern of a lot of parents – who will be there to help their children? We truly believe at Inala that we have the ability to provide more housing options and it would be wonderful to make this difference for other families in the future”.
Inala is endeavouring to address this real need for Accommodation support by launching a Capital Appeal with the target of raising $4 million to create two new homes for 8-10 individuals. By raising these funds and building additional homes we can ensure opportunities for individuals living with disability to create a life of their own.
