1. Paul Zeller became involved in self advocacy in 2012 through a workshop that taught him about knowing his rights and speaking up. He helped start a local self advocacy group. 2. Through leadership training, Paul and some friends worked on a project called the Intersection Project to improve safety at a busy intersection. They presented to local council and were able to push for changes. 3. Paul has since become chair of his self advocacy group. He regularly attends conferences, does advocacy workshops, and was selected to join the Disability Council of NSW to advocate for people with disabilities, especially in rural areas.

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PAUL ZELLER
NSW CID Conference 2017
Hi.
My name is Paul Zeller and I’mhere to talk with you today about self advocacy
and how self advocacy has made a difference to my life. I’m hoping that by
sharing my story, it could help self advocacy make a difference in your life
too…… that you might get inspired, involved and informed!
I firstgot involved in self advocacy in 2012, through a workshop thatwas run in
Bega by the Intellectual Disability Rights Service. It was all about how
important it is to know your rights and speaking up to be heard.
With the help of a couple of staff from the local ADHC office – Lynneand Steve
– a few of us from the workshop gottogether to set up a self advocacy group
and we started meeting each month.
At around the same time, I had the opportunity to be involved in someLeaders
and Mentors training. This was really good training. It helped me understand
what was involved in leading a projectand working with others. As part of the
course, wehad to do a socialchange project. I teamed up with a couple of
other people – Cara and Nathan – and together we worked on a project called
‘The Intersection Project’.
The Intersection Projectwas about improving safety at one of the intersections
in Bega, near where I live. The intersection is really busy and lots of people
have trouble crossing theroad there. My friends Nathan and Cara both have
physicaldisabilities and find it hard to cross the road there becauseit’s so
busy, and the cars often don’tsee that you need to cross. Thereare no lights

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or pedestrian crossing, so if you aren’table to cross the road quickly it can be
very dangerous.
Our projectinvolved researching whatpeople in town thought about safety at
the intersection, videoing people trying to cross the road at the intersection,
and making a presentation to the local council.
After our presentation, the Council made a commitment to try and do
something to improvesafety at the intersection – it’s an ongoing issuebut it
was good that we wereable to push for change. We also spokeabout the issue
with our local member – Andrew Constance. Itfelt really good to be speaking
up about an issuethat was important to me and my friends.
I was really getting hooked on this idea of advocacy and speaking up for myself
and others.
We kept going with our monthly meetings and I became chairperson of the
group which was really good experience for me. My job was to run the
meetings and keep everyonefocussed on the agenda. This is a hard job
sometimes. At firstour group was called the Leaders and Mentors group, but
now it’s called South East Self Advocacy.
2013 was a big year for me. I started to go to conferences to learn more about
advocacy and as a group we connected with other self advocacy groups to find
out more about whatthey did and what resources they had. In June that year,
Cara, Lynne and I went to the first ever National Conference abouta huge new
thing in the disability world – these days it’s called the National Disability
InsuranceScheme, butwhen it was firstbeing introduced it was Disability Care
– and we went to the very firstDisability Care Conferencethat was held in
Melbourne. Itwas really fantastic. We met so many great people.

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I met Jenny Macklin and had my photo taken with her. I love politics and I love
meeting politicians, so this was a real highlight. While we wereat the
Conference, we also met with people from a self advocacy group from
Tasmania – Speak Out Tasmania. They had made a video about speaking up for
yourself which was shown atthe big dinner at the Conference. Lynne was
involved in helping Speak Out get set up years ago, and knew someof the
people there. Before I knew it, I had an invitation to go down to Hobartto their
annual State conference. I got somehelp from our local Rotary Club to fly to
Hobartto be part of the Conference – it was so good.
When I got back and our local group met up, we started talking abouthaving a
local self advocacy conferenceof our own. Lynne helped us write a grant
application and we got $9,000 to run a conference – it is a lot of work to run a
conference and it kept our group very busy for the next year.
Our conference, called ‘Finding Your Voice’ was run in Batemans Bay in
December 2014. Theconference wentfor 2 days and we had about 25 people
come fromup and down the Far South Coast to be a part of the Conference.
We held it at Murramarang Resortin Batemans Bay – we all stayed there in
cabins and had a big dinner at night with a live band which was pretty
awesome. Lots of us got to get up and sing with the band. I’m a singer myself,
so it was great to have the chanceto perform in frontof an audience. My
favouriteband is U2, so I sang one of their songs.
We had a guest speaker at the conference – someone that lots of you
probably know. It was Leigh Creighton. Itwas really good to meet Leigh and
hear about his experience as a self advocateand peer mentor. We had lots of
other speakers, watched somevideos about self advocacy and also had some
sessions wherewecould work on things in small groups – stuff about self

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advocacy, speaking up and getting ready for the NDIS. Oneof the guys –
Nathan (a different Nathan) shared his PATH plan with us which was good. We
also had a video set up where we each had the chance to explain what self
advocacy meant to us. Everyonehas their own stories about speaking up for
themselves and what self advocacy means to them.
To me, self advocacy is speaking up for myself and others.
After running our local conference, we werea bit worn out, but we werealso
really energised – the conferencewas such a good way to spread the word and
get morepeople involved in self advocacy.
In 2015 I gotreally involved in presenting workshops and speaking atforums. I
spokeat forums about how important self advocacy is for people when they
are planning for the NDIS, and I spokeatmeetings about how important it is to
have young workers supporting peoplewith their NDIS funding.
Our South East Self Advocacy group also ran self advocacy workshops in
Queanbeyan & Batemans Bay.
A few of us fromthese workshops gottogether and travelled up for the 2015
NSW CID Conferencewith Lynne. I remember at last years conference – I
learnt a lot. I remember the leaning tower of donuts!Jenny Macklin was there
too and I got another photo with her. I went to an NDIS talk while I was there. I
bought up the issueof self advocacy in that session. Itwas at last years
conference that I met Aine and started to think about how good it would be to
speak at this years conference … and here I am.
Just after the conference, Aine got in touch to ask me to do an interview for
NSW CID TV – that was pretty fun.

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And not long after that, Lynnegot in touch with me and said that the Disability
Council of NSW was recruiting members, and suggested I should put in an
application. Lynne helped me with my application and was one of my referees,
but I went up to Sydney for the interview by myself. Itwas a bit nerve
wracking. I was actually really nervous. I was so nervous I was shaking!I didn’t
really have much experience with interviews but I really wanted to get a
position on the Council so I could speak up for people with a disability –
especially young people, and people who live in country areas – we often don’t
get much of a voice. I was so excited when I was offered a position on the
Disability Council – I found out in December last year.
So this year has been another big year for me. As partof my role on the
Council, I attended some training, and I travel up to Sydney every second
month for the Council meetings.
NSW CID sponsored meto go to Geelong for the Valid Conference and I have
been involved in consultations on various issues to do with disability.
I am passionateabout speaking up on issues like transport, jobs and housing
for people with disabilities in rural areas.
I really like whatI’mdoing. Itkeeps me busy and it is an important thing that I
do.
I have learnt a lot in my time as a self advocate. I am a lot more confident
about speaking in front of groups and voicing my opinion in meetings. I
encourageeveryone to get involved in self advocacy. Get along to conferences
and be a part of groups. Find your voiceand speak up.

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Meanwhile, our local South East Self Advocacy group is still busy. I’m still
chairman. We’ve been working on getting a logo, becoming incorporated, and
a big thing is to get more people involved.
Some of the challenges we come across arekeeping the membership engaged
– finding a balance between serious advocacy stuff and fun stuff. And trying to
find appropriatetimes and days for meetings. Sometimes stuff that seems so
simple is actually really hard!
One of the questions I was asked to answer in this presentation was “who has
inspired you to speak up for yourself and others?”
Because I am passionateabout human rights, I have to say that Lenin is a big
inspiration to me.
“Itis impossibleto predict the time and progress of revolution. Itis governed
by its own more or less mysterious laws.”
My friends Lynne& Steve have both been a big help in getting me involved in
self advocacy and supporting me.
But my biggest inspiration is Bono from U2 – because he knows how to speak
up for people – through his music and songs. Someof the best inspirations are
musicians.
“You see, idealism detached from action is justa dream. But idealism allied
with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit,
is very exciting. It's very real. It's very strong.”
Self advocacy is exciting andreal and together we’re strong….. we’ll make
the world bendand change so that our voices are heard.