New Pathfinder honours to raise disability awareness in Australia

The Australian Union Conference (AUC) Youth Department has released two new Pathfinder honours that raise awareness of people with disabilities and equip Pathfinders to better recognise and communicate with them. 

The Disability Awareness Australia honour, with a new patch designed in collaboration with the AUC youth director Pastor Jeffrey Parker and AUC financial controller Luke Bapty, aims to bring awareness around disabilities. Pathfinders undertaking the honour will learn about disabilities and how they affect the people around them. 

The AUC youth department is in the process of writing a “Hidden Disability Honour”, which will bring more recognition and awareness for those who have seen and unseen disabilities. 

AUC Youth Director pastor Jeffrey Parker said, “Society in general has become very aware of people with disabilities and the disability awareness honour is designed to help our Pathfinders understand and work closely with children, teens and adults with disabilities.”

Pastor Parker added, “Australian Youth Ministries has also introduced Auslan (Australian Sign Language), which will help our Pathfinders communicate better with hearing-impaired people.” 

“Thank you Luke Bapty from AUC and Jessica Stekla from Greater Sydney Conference for your time and effort to make these honours available for pathfinders in Australia,” Pastor Parker said.

The Disability Awareness Australia and Auslan patch are now available for Pathfinder clubs to purchase from the AUC Resource Centre.

To find out more information about these honours, visit https://pathfinder.org.au/new-honours/ 

The original version of this article was published in the Record.