{"id":6288,"date":"2024-03-07T01:19:24","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T01:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meli.org.au\/?p=6288"},"modified":"2024-03-07T01:19:24","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T01:19:24","slug":"celebrating-international-womens-day-at-meli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meli.org.au\/celebrating-international-womens-day-at-meli\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating International Women&#8217;s Day at Meli"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If anyone can challenge stereotypes and inspire inclusion, it\u2019s Mandy Baxter, Director of Children\u2019s Services at Geelong not-for-profit community service organisation Meli.<\/p>\n<p>Mandy believes everyone deserves an opportunity to realise their full potential, explaining \u201cthe starting line for some is not on par with those who have readily available support, position and resources\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>For close to two decades, Mandy has dedicated her work life to supporting others, through various roles in youth and family services. She was appointed a director at Meli in 2023 following the merger of two of Geelong\u2019s oldest community service organisations, BCYF and Bethany.<\/p>\n<p>Not only is Mandy a dynamic and inclusive leader, she has a disability and knows first-hand how difficult it can be battling long-held beliefs and systematic biases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing a woman in leadership who has a disability is important to me, personally and professionally, but outwardly it challenges society\u2019s view of disability,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI seldom see anyone like me in leadership. And as the saying goes \u2026 if you can\u2019t see it, you can\u2019t be it!\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"imagePlugin floatRight hasCaption\" data-alignment=\"FloatRight\" data-imageurl=\"\/SiteAssets\/SitePages\/tmtnoktg\/3686513169-ALCA8745-2.jpg\" data-uploading=\"0\" data-width=\"428.17486572265625\" data-height=\"642.2622985839844\" data-imagenaturalheight=\"6000\" data-imagenaturalwidth=\"4000\" data-webid=\"30af3d06-8ad2-46a7-be9a-df8069bad9dd\" data-siteid=\"0c69fe85-6649-49a8-baae-81b693005d9c\" data-listid=\"6b552928-bdb1-4523-afed-bda8e241ccd1\" data-uniqueid=\"f9db9234-28a4-460b-9733-6e39bae8bd56\" data-widthpercentage=\"36.16150884963051\" data-captiontext=\"Mandy Baxter.\">\n<div id=\"45191750-19e9-4236-9af8-b81ef0553eb6\" class=\"z_i_50a7110f\">\n<div class=\"a_a_f71b5f03 css-150\" data-automation-id=\"imageRead\">\n<figure class=\"g_a_f71b5f03\" tabindex=\"0\">\n<div class=\"b_a_f71b5f03\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"b_a_b8d6211c c_a_b8d6211c\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"css-196\" src=\"https:\/\/bcyf.sharepoint.com\/_api\/v2.1\/sites\/bcyf.sharepoint.com,0c69fe85-6649-49a8-baae-81b693005d9c,30af3d06-8ad2-46a7-be9a-df8069bad9dd\/lists\/6b552928-bdb1-4523-afed-bda8e241ccd1\/items\/f9db9234-28a4-460b-9733-6e39bae8bd56\/driveItem\/thumbnails\/0\/c960x99999\/content?prefer=noRedirect,extendCacheMaxAge&amp;clientType=modernWebPart&amp;format=webp\" width=\"433\" height=\"649.5\" data-sp-originalimgsrc=\"\/SiteAssets\/SitePages\/tmtnoktg\/3686513169-ALCA8745-2.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mandy is unafraid to challenge the barriers and biases that prevent true equity or inclusion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a woman with disability, I can challenge the bias that I and my \u201csisterhood\u201d face everyday, but that can be exhausting \u2026 so here is my advice: \u201cMainstream, move over, make some room, hand over the mic. Women with disability are everywhere and our contribution is valid, exceptional, and we will change the world for better if given the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the International Women\u2019s Day (IWD) theme\u00a0<i>of Invest in women: Accelerate progress<\/i><strong>,<\/strong>\u00a0Mandy believes it\u2019s particularly important to invest in women with disability because their inclusion at every level of society is low.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf one in six people in Australia have a disability*, where are we? It is often societal perception of disability that is the true \u2018disabler\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a leader in a female-dominated workplace (about 85 per cent), Mandy appreciates the \u201ctapestry\u201d of women who work across a range of support and education services at Meli.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI admire the collective impact we have, both subtly and overt. We are smart, adaptable, we can pivot. We raise the voices of women and children. We inspire action and lead by example. Our experiences give much more insight into what our communities require \u2026 our diversity contributes to enabling communities to prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She says IWD is an opportunity to celebrate women and to hold genuine discussion on important issues such as pay equity, career advancement, and issues such as the unacceptably high rate of intimate partner violence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a society we require system (and attitudinal) change at all levels to ensure we continue to raise dialogue. IWD allows us to face the complexity of those challenges and also uplifts the achievement of all women and girls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>*ABS statistics 2018 show 4.4 million Australians or 17.7 per cent of the population have a disability.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If anyone can challenge stereotypes and inspire inclusion, it\u2019s Mandy Baxter, Director of Children\u2019s Services at Geelong not-for-profit community service organisation Meli. Mandy believes everyone deserves an opportunity to realise their full potential, explaining \u201cthe starting line for some is not on par with those who have readily available support, position and resources\u201d. For close<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[71,70,67,68,15,69],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Celebrating International Women&#039;s Day at Meli | Meli<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meli.org.au\/celebrating-international-womens-day-at-meli\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrating International Women&#039;s Day at Meli | Meli\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If anyone can challenge stereotypes and inspire inclusion, it\u2019s Mandy Baxter, Director of Children\u2019s Services at Geelong not-for-profit community service organisation Meli. 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