Kemira at IRT William Beach Gardens – Narelle and Christine

“Narelle had already tried living in a Department of Housing home on her own and due to lack of support and challenging neighbours it wasn’t a good experience.  I didn’t want that for her again. While I was around any problems could be sorted, but without me it would be a big worry,” Christine explains.

Then Christine heard about Kemira. The project was the result of IRT’s ground-breaking partnership with disability providers Greenacres, Interchange Illawarra and Community Gateway.

“The idea of a community for ageing people with an intellectual disability and their parent carers was something I had never heard of before but it was so exciting to think about. It would be somewhere Narelle would fit in, somewhere she could have a future,” she says.

“I asked her and she agreed. Kemira would be a new beginning to the rest of her life.”

Narelle now has a wide support network, which includes six hours a week of one-on-one support from Interchange Illawarra. She’s learning how to shop and cook, clean, wash and iron. She’s also learning to participate in everyday activities such as catching the bus, going to the gym, having lunch out or just going shopping with friends. She’s also improving her reading, writing and computer skills.

Narelle loves her newfound independence, the new skills she’s learning and the goals she’s setting.