He is an Amicus participant, spending time one-on-one with support worker David Van Oeveren doing a range of activities.

“I’ve got a very bad memory, so I can’t remember exactly what I’ve made, but I’m making a bowl at the moment,” Mr Newman said.

“David is sort of my offsider. He tells me what to do and what is going on, and all that.”

Mr Newman said he sometimes struggled to understand what was happening around him. Mr Van Oeveren was there, in part, to help with one-on-one assistance.

Mr Van Oeveren said the pair had found themselves at the woodturners shed in an effort to find things Mr Newman would enjoy doing.

But it was more than that. The Woodturners shed was also contained a chance to get out into the community and spend time with people his own age.

Amicus CEO Ann-Maree Davis said people with disabilities should have the chance to live active, vibrant lives.

“It’s very much about helping them find their good life,” she said.

“That is what we are all after, isn’t it? The good life?”

Related: Parents fear for future of children with disabilities, but ark might prove to be the answer

This weekend Amicus celebrates 30 years of service with a gala dinner at the Bendigo Jockey Club’s Silks Function Centre.

It is a time of reflection for the organisation, with Ms Davis casting her mind over the momentous and sometimes bumpy changes the sector has navigated.

The Amicus group’s history has been sandwiched between two major reforms.

The first saw institutions largely empty of people with disabilities in the 1980s and 90s. 

The second was the sweeping changes that came with the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme this decade.

On Thursday, Amicus leaders called for changes to the NDIS, arguing for “radical improvements” to help clients struggling with shortcomings within the system.

They have compiled a list of NDIS improvements they want to see local politicians turn their attention to, the biggest issue by far is how planners determine what is reasonable and necessary.

A number of people with disabilities and their families have told Amicus they are giving up pursuing the full funding and services they are entitled to.

More: Amicus approached by at least one person a day with NDIS complaints last month

Ms Davis emphasised that she and Amicus supported the goals of the NDIS and that on the whole the reform had been for the better. The scheme has also been good to Amicus, allowing it to expand its services as people with disabilities get more flexibility to pick and choose their supports.

“But there have been numerous individuals, who Amicus has supported, who have faced some significant challenges in getting their needs met adequately,” Ms Davis said.

“We need to get it right because there are 460,000 Australians who are relying on this just to get their basic needs met.”

The group that is now Amicus formed in 1988 when Yooralla started a 12 month pilot program to support people with disabilities. Many were still living in institutional care.

“That was really the typical way that people were supported (at the time),” Ms Davis said.

“The program was about supporting people to move back to their place of origin and not live in institutional care anymore.”

Ms Davis said one of the main problems at the time was that people might have begun living in the community but they were not participating in it.

“Their address had changed but for many it was like they were living in an institution. Their lives were still very restricted and choices were still very limited,” Ms Davis said.

Linda Beilharz was the first coordinator of the Community Preparation Program, as Amicus was known in 1988.

“You wouldn’t see people (with disabilities) in town getting jobs or learning. They weren’t doing anything outside the centre,” she said.

Some wanted to learn. Some wanted to work.

“They hadn’t had any experience moving around or interacting in the shopping centres or doing things like catching public transport,” Ms Beilharz said.

“The program was designed to give them the experience of doing all of those things.”

Part of the reason people did not have connections with the community in the late 1980s was because the community was not always ready to be inclusive, Ms Davis said.

“It’s a really important part of the work Amicus does – building community capacity, awareness and understanding – in looking at how people can be involved and why it is important for all members of a community to be involved.

“We like to teach by doing. It really is about showing people what is possible and sharing the success stories so people can envisage how they can provide assistance.”

In recent years Amicus has also begun working with young people who have been in contact with child protection services.

“There are some fairly concerning statistics around life outcomes for young adults who have been involved in the child protection system. So we are doing our best to try and turn those statistics around,” Ms Davis said.

The new work is part of a rapid expansion at the group which has seen it double in size over recent years.

Today, Amicus works with 350 clients across the Loddon region and into Ballarat and Daylesford.

“We would not have been able to see that that growth would happen in the early days. What we’ve seen is the whole disability system change around it. So it’s been fantastic that it has been picked up and supported in the way that it has,” Ms Beilharz said.

The Amicus Gala Dinner will take place at the Silks Function Centre on Saturday night and is a ticketed event. The night will also see the launch of the official Amicus story “30 years promoting all abilities the Amicus way”.

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