As you may be aware, our organisation began in 1951 and was known as the Spastic Welfare Association of Western Australia. Our founding families had a vision to ensure their children had a secure future with opportunities for them to live meaningful lives.  We continue that commitment today.

The organisation has continued to evolve over the years and reflected this in the change of names that we have had including the move from the Centre for Cerebral Palsy to Ability Centre in 2015. The change at the time was done to ensure that the community of WA recognised that the organisation had a high level of expertise in working with people of all abilities.

We are in another phase of evolution, where our services, now more than ever, are being delivered all throughout the community and much less centre based.  This is to realise our organisation’s vision - “People of all abilities thrive in their community throughout their lives.”

To achieve this vision we need to support people wherever they want us – at home, school, workplace, study environments, community centres, our hubs, with their recreational hobbies or as they go about their daily lives.

We do this, not by looking inwards at just what we offer as an organisation but by looking outwards and achieving together with you and whatever is needed to make things happen for you to realise your goals.

To this end, I am proud to let you know that as of 3 May 2021 we will be known as Ability WA. Whilst a small change in words it’s an important change for our organisation and customers - a statement that that we will support you and others wherever you need us.

We have also just completed six months’ work on our Organisational Values which will guide us during the years ahead and set the standard for all that that we do and that you experience.  In developing our Values we worked to have strong input from our Customer Advisory Council and members of staff from right across our organisation. We will share these with you soon and look forward to our continued partnership in the coming years.​