The Michael J. Hines Award
The Michael J Hines award is presented to one participant from each service area every year. The certificate and cash prize are awarded in honour of Michael, who was a Director at Distinctive Options between 2004 and 2012 and a Sunbury local. The Board established the Michael J Hines Award to honour the contribution that Michael made to Distinctive Options and recognise the achievements of the participants we support.
Jonty was the inaugural winner from our DO Pathways service for 2022.
DO Pathways provides participants with opportunities for supported employment in hospitality, trade services, horticulture and apiculture. With a vast knowledge of bees and insect behaviour, Jonty is one of the legends behind our own honey production business DO Honey.
Congratulation to our award winners from all service areas.
Winner from DO Pathway: Jonty
Winner from ILS: Josh
Winner from DO Connect Sunbury: Jessica
Winner from DO Connect Bendigo: Jacqueline
Winner from DO Connect Brimbank: Edward
Winner from DO Connect Kyneton: Marnie
Organisational Achievements
Distinctive Options is registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to deliver a range of disability support services.
As a registered provider, Distinctive Options is externally audited against the Commission’s quality and safeguard disability standards. This independent audit body is currently Community Audits Australia.
For transparency in governance and reporting, Distinctive Options won a Gold Australasian Reporting Award (ARA) in 2021.
As ARA advised, “…to receive Gold a report must demonstrate overall excellence in annual reporting. It should provide high quality coverage of most aspects of the ARA criteria and full disclosure of key aspects of the organisation’s core business. A Gold Award report is a model report for similar organisations to follow…” This is an exceptional achievement.
To the best of our knowledge, no other disability organisation in Australia has ever achieved better than silver.
Distinctive Options were awarded another Gold Award at the Australasian Reporting Awards for transparency in governance and reporting for the 2022 financial year.