The Michael J. Hines Award
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.
Congratulation to the Michael J Hines Award winners for 2024.
Winner from Independent Living Supports: Alesha Hardie
Winner from DO Sunbury: Ashleigh Shade
Winner from DO Pathways: Aiden Bryan
Winner from DO Bendigo: Ivy Kelly
Winner from DO Brimbank: Joel Erskine
Kaye Thurbon Award
Kaye Thurbon Award
The Kay Thurbon Award is presented each year to a participant from DO Noweyung who has transformed their own life and enriched their local community by exercising choice and control via their DO Noweyung supports.
Kay is a life member and past chairperson of Noweyung Board and has played an enormous role in the Bairnsdale community.
Congratulations to the Kay Thurbon Award Winners for 2024.
Winners from DO Noweyung: Warren Ingle and Gary Hughes.
Congratulations to the Award Winners
Michael J Hines Award Winner 2024
Pathways
Aiden Bryan
Presented by CEO Ernie Metcalf. (Right)
Aiden works at the DO Food Truck Cafe in Sunbury where he enjoys meeting and serving customers while building his workplace skills.
Kaye Thurbon Award Winner 2024
Bairnsdale
Warren Ingle
Presented by (Left to right), Executive Manager Support Services Rick Dunn, Kaye Thurbon and Gippsland Food Enterprises Sales and Operations Supervisor Jodie Wood.
Warren received this award in recognition of his ‘passion and pride for his work’ and as a participant who has transformed their own life or enriched their local community while exercising choice and control using Distinctive Options Noweyung Supports.
Michael J Hines Award Winner 2024
Sunbury
Ashleigh Shade
Presented by CEO Ernie Metcalf. (Right)
Michael J Hines Award Winner 2024
Independent Living Supports
Alesha Hardie
Presented by Communication and Relationships Officer Taryn Schneider (left) and ILS Coordinator Deborah Ford. (Right)
Michael J Hines Award Winner 2024
Brimbank
Joel Erskine
Presented by CEO Ernie Metcalf. (Right)
Michael J Hines Award Winner 2024
Bendigo
Ivy Kelly
Presented by CEO Andre Carvalho. (Right)
Kaye Thurbon Award Winner 2024
Bairnsdale
Gary Hughes
Presented by Executive Manager Support Services Rick Dunn, Kaye Thurbon and Gippsland Food Enterprises Sales and Operations Supervisor Jodie Wood.
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.