On 6 September 2012, three Australian Disability Enterprises were recognised by the Australian Government for their commitment to employees with disability at the Australian Disability Enterprises Excellence Award ceremony at the National Disability Services Employment Forum in Perth.
The Excellence Award recognises the role Australian Disability Enterprises make in providing high quality and sustainable employment opportunities to people with disability. The Award also acknowledges organisations that provide best practice and innovative training opportunities, achieve strong wage outcomes, provide safe working conditions, social inclusion and participation for its employees.
For the second year running, QANTAS generously donated $10,000 of flights for the winner.
Examples of excellence included internationally recognised success, strong social inclusion and participation for supported employees, excellent wage outcomes, defined career paths, social enterprises providing interesting and sustainable work through new and profitable business opportunities, investment and re-development of work sites to improve conditions for supported employees and innovative training programs which have enhanced the skills and knowledge of the workforce.
The winner of the 2012 Australian Disability Excellence Award was:
Back to Back Theatre Inc (Geelong, VIC)
Back to Back Theatre is a highly successful regional Australian theatre company with national and international exposure. Back to Back as a professional theatre company is a unique Australian Disability Enterprise. The company is also unique in the theatre industry for employing an ensemble
of actors on an ongoing basis, exploring groundbreaking use of technology and a radically unique methodology for creating work.
Coming in as close runners-up were:
The Flagstaff Group (Illawarra and Shoalhaven, NSW)
The Flagstaff Group was established in 1966. The Group now operates five business divisions across two sites including print and mail, commercial laundry, paper to paper recycling, food packaging and engineering. Flagstaff has a number of key initiatives in place such as their training programs Workskills and Flagstaff Vocational Pathways which produce positive outcomes for employees.
Scope – South East Industries (Oakleigh, VIC)
Scope has a strong focus on training, with many employees attaining a tertiary qualification relating to their work. Scope demonstrated further successful initiatives such as the Scope Young Ambassadors program and successful business partnerships.