How new program Explore is turning the disability sector on its head

Afford’s groundbreaking program Explore is turning the disability sector on its head. This sector-leading initiative reimagines what it means to be connected to your community — not through a window or from a distance, but right in the middle of it.

New program Explore is turning the disability sector on its head

For decades, people with disability were kept apart from mainstream society — often in institutions, and later in purpose-built hubs. While these hubs, often referred to as community centres, offered safety and support, they could at times reinforce separation. Explore flips that model on its head.

Instead of being based in traditional centres, Explore sees our clients actively engaging in real-life settings. That might mean visiting local cafés, joining community groups, catching public transport, or pursuing work, learning, or even volunteering opportunities — all alongside the rest of the community.

The Explore program timetable allows clients to choose the activities they love.

“Explore is about real choice, real inclusion and real life,” says Afford’s Community Programs Manager Peter Smith.

“We’re not just ticking boxes — we’re building bridges.”

The shift mirrors Australia’s historic de-institutionalisation of mental health care in the late 20th century (the 1970s to the 1990s).

Explore is doing disability differently – and we couldn’t be happier.

According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Human Rights and Mental Illness: Report of the National Inquiry into the Human Rights of People with Mental Illness, roughly 30,000 Australians lived in psychiatric institutions in the 1960s.

Today, that number is about 6000 — and while de-institutionalisation has not been without issues, it’s widely believed that quality of life has improved for many due to community-based care models.

Explore is following that same philosophy: inclusion, not isolation.

With Explore, Afford is leading the way. And more importantly, we’re walking it — side by side with the people we support.

Want to know more? Call 1800 233 673 or click here.