STAR began in 1986 and was founded by a group of parents who were concerned for the future wellbeing of their child/ren who had an intellectual disability. This very dedicated and active group of parents lobbied Government for funds to establish a service that would assist their child/ren to develop the skills required to successfully live in the community and experience an inclusive community based lifestyle of their choice.

STAR works with up to 100 individuals at any one time throughout metropolitan Adelaide. All our funds go directly to provide services for our client group. We are not a band aid measuire in people's lives, we teach them to be self reliant and offer opportunities for them to participate meaningfully in their communities.

STAR teaches supports and advocates for and creates opportunities for adults with disabilities to have a community based lifestyle of their choice. Our role is to teach adults the skills required to successfully manage their homes independently and to make ourselves redundant in this process. We teach our clients in their home on a one-to-one basis and the skills taught include, cleaning routines, cooking, shopping, menu planning, budgeting and laundry routines, using public transport and finding and accessing local community resources ie. supermarkets, hardware stores, doctors, dentists, shopping centres, vets, libraries etc.

STAR also manages a volunteer program (our LIVE Project) where we link isolated people with disabilities with a volunteer to offer opportunities to enjoy and join in on recreational/social activities in the community.

STAR is dependent of Government funding; we do not charge a fee for service believing it is inappropriate to charge people for a service they would not need if they did not have a disability; and are themselves only in receipt of a Disability Support Pension to meet their living expenses. Currently we have a waiting list of potential clients whom we are unable to attend to due to a lack of financial resources. As you are probably aware, funding from Government sources in the disability area have remained stagnant and as a consequence the people currently on our waiting list will, in all likelihood be waiting up to 12 months for a service from STAR. Donations received by STAR will go directly to delivering much needed services.