Campaign news
Since February our lobbying team has been working hard planning and developing a range of resources for our campaign titled: “Physical intimacy is a human right – not an ‘Extra’, bringing awareness of disability-specific sexual support needs of people with disability.” The campaign webpage is now up and running on our website.
Behind the scenes we recently sent letters to the NDIS Reform Advisory Council and the NDIS Independent Advisory Council giving them advance notice of our campaign, along with a poster about our primary case study Sue and Francis. This week we sent 19 federal politicians a similar personalised mailout providing advance notice of the campaign, along with a request to meet with them.
We have started the campaign via a series of new posts to our social media channels to generally raise awareness of the sexual rights of people with disability. The next stage will be to publicly release our case studies, one by one, exploring access to sexual supports provided by sex workers. Our primary case study of Sue and Francis is now also on our website.
Intimate Inclusion: People with Disability Navigating Sexual Supports Video Series
As previously announced, Touching Base has been successful in obtaining a grant to produce six advocacy videos providing testimonies of people with disability sharing their experiences around sexual supports. Each person’s video will be around 5 minutes long. This project is a key part of our Physical intimacy is a human right – not an ‘Extra’ campaign and the videos are scheduled to be completed in May next year. We will keep you informed with new developments as they arise.
After recently putting out the call for expressions of interest for the project Steering Committee we are thrilled to have received twice as many applications as there are positions available. They have all been of a very high quality so we had a difficult task making a selection.
Our next call-out will be for expressions of interest from people with disability with lived experience who would like to share their stories as one of the 6 videos. We will send out another notice announcing this to all our members in due course, once the Steering Committee has reviewed and approved the recruitment materials. In the meantime have a think about whether you, or someone you know, might be interested in sharing their story publicly and keep an eye out for our next notice.
Social Media
If you have been visiting our social media channels in the last couple of weeks you would have noticed there has been a big increase in the number and types of posts our new social media managers have been pumping out for us. Many thanks to our new volunteers Laura Anne (from Perth) and Karen (from Canberra), for stepping into the role and doing such a great job.
Building our networks through our social media channels is a high priority as we start our campaign to raise awareness and build support for the sexual rights of people with a disability. You can access all our social media platforms via this link: All Our Links Here. We strongly encourage you to join the bandwagon to share our posts amongst your own networks to maximise our reach.
For example, footage of our 25th Anniversary has been shared via our socials and now on our website so people can really get a feeling of what our work is about. Check it out if you haven’t already seen it 🙂
Will you help us review the 2nd editions of our booklets for people with disability?
We are in the process of reviewing and updating the following resources prior to publishing their 2nd editions:
If you would like to be part of a small volunteer editorial team reviewing these unique resources please send an email outlining why you’re interested to Saul via operations@touchingbase.org. Then if you are selected we’ll line up a time for you to review the changes we’re thinking of making and provide your feedback. We estimate this would take no longer than 90 mins.
As a token of our appreciation we are offering a $60 giftcard to people who review and provide feedback on all three booklets. Your participation will also be credited in the publication details of the booklet’s 2nd editions.
Younger Committee members sought
We are still seeking to expand the number of younger people who sit on the Touching Base Committee of Management. This is so Touching Base can reflect the needs and interests of younger people more clearly, provide an opportunity for our youth to develop leadership skills and create an avenue for people to progress to office bearer roles such as President, Secretary and Treasurer if they wish into the future. We have created a recruitment poster specifically targeting university and TAFE students.
View or download the poster here and please share with your networks.
Submission to the Senate Committee NDIS amendment bill enquiry
Touching Base sent the Community Affairs Legislation Committee a 23 page submission as they review the Government’s Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026, with its proposed draconian budget cuts.
In the 1990’s Professor Tom Kitwood developed the concept of person-centred care. It emerged from his earlier research that identified the harmful outcomes of what he called malignant social psychology, when the mental and physical health of people with dementia is undermined by the way people interact with them. Person-centred care is the standard expected by the NDIS for delivery of disability services.
In our submission we used our campaign primary case study about Sue and Francis as an example of unintended consequences after NDIS services were cut – without regard for the individual circumstances of NDIS participants. We provide examples of the NDIS enacting 11 of the 17 aspects of malignant social psychology in their interactions and decisions with Sue and Francis, which explains their negative physical and psychological health outcomes.
We made two recommendations:
- That more time should be taken to thoroughly review the proposed changes to the NDIS ACT in the Senate.
- That co-design with peak peer-based disability organisations is an essential aspect of the process moving forward.
We will publish a link to our submission on our website once it has been uploaded to the Senate Committee’s website.
Whoretales results
A donation of $1,169.40 was made to Touching Base from the proceeds of this fabulous event. Many thanks again to Ashley and Charles for selecting Touching Base to be the recipients of their generosity. On the night we got to share insights from our work with a caring and empathetic audience and a great evening was had by all who attended.
EOFY tax donation time
Some parts of life are complex and messy, but they really don’t need to be. With your support we work to make it easier for disabled adults to express their sexuality and have an active sex life (if they choose), like the rest of the community.
If you believe this is a right, not a luxury, please donate before June 30 2026 – all donations (over $2 are tax deductible.
Hope you’ve enjoyed our news, updates and opportunities to contribute to a better future and keep an eye out on our social media channels for more news as we roll out our campaign!
Until then, wishing you all the best.
From the team at Touching Base