APM WorkCare is delighted to have taken part in the 2020 Tasmanian Achievement Awards.
The Tasmanian Community Achievement Awards started in 2007 to encourage, acknowledge and reward the valuable contributions that individuals, communities, and businesses make throughout Tasmania. These awards aim to recognise their success and achievements, which contribute to making Tasmania a better place.
Representing APM WorkCare as an industry judge was Rehabilitation Consultant Josh Bloom. Josh was invited to judge the finalists for the Motor Accidents Insurance Board (MAIB) Disability Achievement Award.
This honour for Josh came about thanks to Teena James, an Injury Management Advisor from MAIB - a valued partner of APM in Tasmania.
The MAIB Disability Achievement Award recognises people living with a disability who are actively contributing to the community and achieving personal goals.
Each of these individuals contribute, influence, and achieve in the areas of sport, art, study, community services and/or education despite their own personal challenges.
The role of the expert judge is to short list the nominations and then attend the online judging day for the category to assist with the selection of the finalists and winner.
“After meeting with Teena she recognised me as a person living and working with a physical disability and asked if I would join her in the judging of this award” Josh said.
Josh was born with spina bifida, a congenital condition affecting the spinal cord and he has the lived experience of having multiple limbs amputated at a young age.
He was thrilled to be selected to judge the award: “It was a real honour to be asked by Teena James to be an Independent Expert Judge for the MAIB Disability Achievement Award.”
“I have lived with a physical disability my whole life and understand some of the discrimination, challenges and achievements that people with Disability sometimes face and experience.”
A part of his role, Josh presented his top four nominations to the judging panel along with Ms James.
The award ceremony took place on Friday November 6th.
The winner of the 2020 MAIB Disability Achievement Award is Judy Huett of Burnie.
An advocate for human rights of people with a disability, she was the first Australian person with an intellectual disability to go the United Nations in Geneva to talk to the UN Committee about the 2013 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
She has actively worked in the Independent Advisory Council and the Intellectual Disability Reference Group, advising the National Disability Insurance Agency board from the lived experience of a person living with intellectual disability.
Judy works with the Speak Out Association of Tasmania and is an Asia Pacific member of Empower Us Action Group, an international inclusion group.
Read the full list of winners from the 2020 Tasmanian Achievement Awards.