DPSC Stream 2 — Community Capacity Building (DAS)

Working title (form field, ≤250 chars)

Open Doors Central Australia: community-led access and inclusion reviews of mainstream venues, services and events across Alice Springs and the Barkly — by people with disability, for their own town

Local people with disability are trained, accredited and paid to review the venues, services and events of their own community — every reviewed organisation leaves with a plain-language action plan, a progress dashboard, and a place on the public access map.

Project description (form field, ≤1,000 chars)

Open Doors is a community-led access and inclusion program for remote Central Australia. DAS will train and employ a casual workforce of local people with disability, drawn from a lived-experience network running since 2016, as accredited Peer Access Assessors. Working in pairs, assessors review the venues, services and events of everyday community life — pools, libraries, clubs, events, transport points — across Alice Springs and the Barkly, assessing physical, sensory, communication, attitudinal and cultural-safety barriers. Each participating organisation receives a plain-language Inclusion Action Plan and twelve months of follow-up through a self-service digital platform that tracks actions and re-checks progress. Findings populate a public access map so people with disability know what to expect before they arrive. An annual recognition program celebrates organisations that act. Organisations change how they operate; people with disability lead the change and are paid for it.

Activities

1. Train + employ Peer Access Assessors (casual workforce of local PWD, accredited, working in pairs)
2. Access + inclusion reviews of mainstream venues/services/events across Alice Springs + Barkly SA3s
3. Plain-language Inclusion Action Plans + 12-month follow-up via self-service digital platform (tech carries follow-up)
4. Public access map populated from findings
5. Annual recognition program + Hidden Disabilities Sunflower facilitation

Eligibility self-check

• Funded activity is community capability uplift — split from orgs' legal compliance floor (DDA obligations stay theirs, unfunded)
• No funds flow to participating orgs — clear of subsidy trap
• Peers are paid assessors, not advocates — no advocacy delivery
• Remote-gap card: §6.1 location need + DAS meets the §5.2 physical-address rule in-region

Smallest pool ($49.5M) — modest asks are tactically smart here. REFUTERS (11 Jun): CREDIBLE, cleanest of the six. Fixes: split the DDA-compliance reading explicitly, demote access map to by-product (feed Accessible Australia / WheelEasy), split vehicle-lease line, add recruitment line. See dossier §3.