Gail Lienesch and Shona Neale.
Elouera Association Ltd has won an Enablement Award as The Most Outstanding Employer in the Disability Sector in Australia for 2025 for the Disability Services category.
The Enablement Awards were presented at a ceremony in Sydney on August 8. The Enablement Awards were created to celebrate and reward excellence, innovation and exemplary achievements in the disability care sector in Australasia. The Awards aim to recognise the rapid growth of this sector in the region, and the capacity of individuals to influence and set new performance standards.
The Awards focus on elevated performance; the creation of new business models; contrarian thinking; recognising and embracing new trends; market leadership; inspirational performance and the elevation of the customer experience.
The evaluation methodology required the Awards Secretariat to apply the following test to the final selected candidate in each category, “Is this claimant the best performed, most meritorious, most innovative and most courageous in the category?”
The awards embrace plenty of different categories and awards. Shona Neale, General Manager of Elouera Association, said they are honoured to receive this award. “We are very honoured. To be recognised for the hard work and dedication that our staff have put into the services we provide is amazing. “We like to try and provide outstanding services. We don’t know who nominated us, but we certainly try our best to employ and support individuals with a disability and so that they can live their best lives and participate in the community like anyone else can.
“Our organisations started to initially with our school, that was back in around 1969. And then from there, we have a school for children with a disability, from Kinder to Year 12.
“We also have day service programs and then we have supported employment. We’ve got two recycling facilities, we have our laundry, and we have Elouera Hire as well in town, so we’re quite diverse with what we do.
“We were quite honoured and quite surprised, it’s nice to be recognised for that. “The Enablement Awards are created to celebrate and reward excellence innovation and exceptional achievements in the disability care sector in Australasia. The awards recognised the rapid growth of the sector in the region and the capacity to influence new performance standards. The awards focus on elevated performance, creation of new business models, recognising and embracing new trend market leadership, inspirational performance and the elevation of customer experience.
“It means a huge amount to the community. We find that we have a lot of people relocate up to the area due to the services that we provide and we pretty much can provide services for somebody from the age of four all the way up until end of life. We’re quite unique in diversity at what we do, but we do find that we have a lot of people relocate to the area just due to the services and of what we can provide, I think the size of the school, we’re not too big and the complex needs of individuals that we can tailor to, is quite sought after as well.”
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