River Night is the Co-founder of Developing Australian Communities. With more than 26 years in Disability, Mental Health, Education, Child Safety, Youth Justice, Quality Systems and Forensic Settings in Government and Non-Government Sectors, as well as lived experience of disability, River Night is an expert in raising the bar and helping 24/7 NDIS Funded Participants. River is my guest at 8.30am this morning…You can either tunein to IHeart Radio app or to our web page on www.3knd.org.au
River has spent two decades supporting participants living with disability, mental illness and complex behaviour, and working with participants who require coordination of a variety of stakeholders including Statutory Agencies. By applying his own experience in disability, mental health, education, youth detention and child safety, River helps others to set and maintain better standards for the disability sector. He also brings expertise in licensing, forensic disability support, government and non-government roles to his position as a consultant and disability services industry leader.
The Developing Australian Communities Story This is the classic story of when two entrepreneurial minds with the shared values come together to make an impact. River Night has a 26 year legacy in the Community Services and Disability Sector. Fuelled by his passion for service to others, River’s career has taken him through all levels of the industry, from where he started straight out of high school and into community care camps, through to working with Australia’s leading Disability authorities. This led River to creating an NDIS Service Provider business with one of Australia’s highest levels of service standards. River wanted to take his knowledge and expertise of how he ran his organisation to support other Service Providers so that they too could provide the highest level of care to Participants.
This is where River and Mike Clark’s story began… Mike has a 17-year track record in the training Industry. He has run over 1,000 events to over 50,000 people. One of his previous companies he turned into the World’s largest LinkedIn training organisation. Mike sits as a mentor across a range of Growth Accelerators, this is where Mike began helping River expand his provider business. After a couple of years working together, it became clear that both River and Mike developed a passion for wanting to raise the bar of service standards across the NDIS sector and felt that their two different levels of expertise were the perfect match for doing just that.
That was how Developing Australian Communities (DAC) was born! Today, Developing Australian Communities stands to create a voice for the NDIS Sector, through our expos, conferences, surveys and professional development, we are giving Participants, Providers, Carers and industry leaders the opportunity to have their voice heard to bring about much-needed change. Together, as a sector we can develop Australia into a World Leader in the Disability Service space. We’d love for you to come join us to bring this vision to life. We are fortunate to live in a developed nation where the government prioritises the needs of our valued family, friends and neighbours with disabilities. Despite the great work that the government is doing, they are only eight years into rolling out NDIS and it is still confusing, complex and challenging for people to understand what they can and can’t access, as well as for Service Providers and Carers to provide a world class service.
Combining our 50+ years’ experience in the Disability and Training sectors, Developing Australian Communities team are simplifying the complex nature of NDIS. Through our large expos and conferences, participants will receive the right information from the right provider at the right time. Through our highly relevant, advanced and customised professional development training programs, we are partnering with Service Providers to ensure their staff embed behavioural changes that constantly improve the quality of care they provide.