Afford was first founded as The Poliomyelitis Society was founded in 1951 and incorporated in 1952

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1951

In 1953, we opened our first accommodation based service, an After Care Hospital in Turramurra called ‘Cherrywood’.

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1953

In 1954, we changed our name to The Poliomyelitis and Physically Handicapped Society.

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1954

In 1960, we opened our first supported employment work centre in Padstow.

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1960

Salk Vaccine had a dramatic effect in virtually eliminating poliomyelitis in Australia, In 1967, we changed our name to The Foundation For Disabled.

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1967

Throughout the 1960’s our Cherrywood site continued being upgraded with a pool accessible to our clients.

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1960s

1970’s – to mark the completion of the Sports Oval at Cherrywood, we hosted the first 100 mile race ever run in Australia. Our Sheltered Employment Enterprises continued to expand, hiring more people with disabilities.

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1970s

In 1990’s – we introduced our Post School Vocational Programs and Day Program offerings helping people prepare for the workplace and life skills.
Consumers were involved in creating policies and procedures which safeguarded the rights of our clients.

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1990s

In 2000 – We changed our name to the Australian Foundation for Disabled and began trading under the name Afford.
Our Disability Employment Service (DES) launched and has since been ranked as the #1 DES in Australia.
We also launched our short term accommodation (respite) services.

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2000

We recently transitioned into the National Disability Insurance Scheme in 2014 – the greatest reform to Australian Health Care since Medicare.

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2014

Since then we have been proudly servicing more and more people with disabilities and allowing their dreams to soar.

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2018