Glen McMillan's Blog:
Children with Disability NZ Our mission is to make New Zealand the most disabled child friendly region in the world!
Glen McMillan's Blog
Glen McMillan CEO:
- I Am Glen McMillan!
A Little Bit About Glen:
Our Charity Children with Disability NZ came about because of a missing wheelchair swing, and the two ladies looking for the swing contacted a Northland disability advocate seeking help to find the disappeared swing. Kylee and Charlie meet Glen at Glen's home office; the three people click. Charlie was very passionate. Kylee had a disabled child who loved that swing, and Glen was able to help locate the missing swing. We had a long meeting discussing the lack of facilities for disabled children.
Fifty years ago, Glen was a disabled child, and Kylee's child was 9, so what has changed in the 50 years since Glen was a disabled child and 2022, when Alex Kylee's child will be 10? The short answer is not much. Glen McMillan, our charity CEO, is a long-time disability advocate who is very proactive at getting things done.
Kylee Ostermann is Alex’s mum. Alex was the motivation driving all three of us. Alex has multiple disabilities.
The Charity Children with Disability NZ was created; the plan was to get the council to reinstall the old wheelchair swing. We became a registered charity on 26/05/2021. Our vision is simple: our understanding of the needs of the disabled is comprehensive; we did not want to be an extension of another charity, so many follow the same well-worn track. Real change is hard to make happen.
Our focus is disabled children. Glen McMillan, our CEO, became disabled at age 10. Kylee’s son Alex is almost ten; there is a fifty-plus-year difference in age between Glen and Alex.
I Want To Make A Diffrence To All Children's Lives:
So, if we were to look at how much progress has been made in catering for disabled children in the last 50 years in terms of inclusion sadly many areas have had little change.
Our first focus was the wheelchair swing, we had located it but the cost of reinstalling the old swing just was not economical. Glen started building the charities infrastructure while Kylee and Charlie attended meetings with Whangarei council. Agreement between our charity and Whangarei council was completed a location decided opon we would fundraise and part fund a wheelchair swing for Waipu Park in Northland. Fundraising had already started we had a goal of raising $10,000 we have reached this goal.
Accomplishment no 1 raise $10,000 towards a wheelchair swing. Done Accomplishment no 2 we also got Whangarei council to agree to several accessible play items to be installed at the new Pohe Island playground in Whangarei. We have submitted requests for wheelchair accessible playground equipment at more than 12 playgrounds around NZ which are in the planning stage.
We lobby endlessly for better access more curb cuts, accessible parking the list goes on we have succeeded in getting more than twenty new curb cuts or other accessibility related changes. We need support with funding but also person power volunteers. The fact that we are dealing with disabled children and covid is such a big risk has prevented any mass events, so we have focused on playgrounds or places to go safely and getting councils and Government to better understand and cater for disabled children’s needs.
"The Charity Children With Disability is a passion to help others."
