Melissa Nasso was the winner of the Dynamic Achiever Award at the Wollondilly Breakthrough Youth Awards. The Awards are an initiative of Picton Chamber of Commerce and are supported by the Wollondilly Shire Council and Wollondilly Youth Network. The Awards celebrate the achievements and commitment of young people between the ages of 8-25, who live, study or work in the Wollondilly Shire.

Award categories are Academic, Visual Arts, Sport, Community/Citizenship, Science and Technology and Dynamic Achiever. The Woolaway Wool Shed hosted the presentation of Awards on Thursday 10 April 2003.

MDS supported several nominations with very successful results. Melissa Nasso received the winning prize for the Dynamic Achiever Award. Melissa caught the judge's eye with her courage and dedication in obtaining an apprenticeship in the hospitality area.

Megan Doyle was awarded a Finalist Certificate, also in the Dynamic Achiever category for her outstanding commitment and achievements in employment based activities.

Both of these nominees are great examples of "believing leading to achieving" and are great role models for all young people. We look forward to seeing more successful candidates next year.

After many years of hard work developing policies and procedures MDS has been granted accreditation by Benchmark as a Quality Assured provider of services for people with a disability. Macarthur Personnel and KHS Complete Property Services where also accredited as meeting all Commonwealth Disability Service Standards. Further accreditation was awarded under the ISO 9001-2000 Quality Management Systems Requirements to Macarthur Personnel, KHS, Macarthur Progressions, Macarthur Access and the Behaviour Intervention Support Service.

In its final report, Benchmark stated that MDS "has in place systems and resources that provide a level of service that meets the needs of the clients". MDS is now committed to its Quality Management System and has appointed a Quality Management Coordinator to ensure that the system is maintained and enhanced. Service users, visitors and staff will be encouraged to have an input to this process by submitting Improvement Requests. MDS has developed an internal Audit Team, which includes service users and staff, to monitor and evaluate MDS services. Benchmark will also be conducting annual audits. MDS is well on its way to meeting requirements of the next audit due in April 2004.

All MDS staff felt great excitement on learning that we had been awarded both ISO9001 and Commonwealth Accreditation. Staff had worked hard to achieve this. It means that everyone who uses an MDS service can be sure that they will be treated fairly, receive the service they want and have agreed to, and if not they can complain and things will get better. A process of continuous improvement is in place so that all staff and service users can help MDS to continue to develop services that meet people's needs.

Our collage of photos show that we all thought we had something to sing about on hearing the news of our success.

MDS has been invited to speak at a state conference on assisting ATLAS service users to achieve long term employment. Rob Moran,Sherie Avalos and KylieCrnek will be presenting.

Paul is competing in a number of races in the coming months, including the Perth City To Surf (August), the Berlin Marathon (September), and the Oita Marathon in Japan (October).

The Hermitage Restaurant held a fundraising dinner for Paul's Athens 2004 Campaign and over $8000 was raised. Photos from the night can be found on Paul's website, www.paulnunnari.com. The website also contains Paul's previous results, lists upcoming events, features diary entries, and more.

Paul now has a weekly interview on C91.3 FM tune in every Friday, 8:05am to 8:13am.

NEWSFLASH: Paul won the Midnight Sun Ultra Challenge in Alaska.

To Angela on becoming a grandmother, and to Zora Trajceska who married Goran Todoroski on the 4th of May 2003.

• John Millen - Graduated with a Bachelor of Adult Education.
• Theresa Maynard - Graduated with a Bachelor of Education (Habilitation).
• Ann Lehmann - One of the first ever graduates with a Graduate Diploma in Creative Music Therapy.
• Grace Barilla - Completed a Diploma of Education (Habilitation).
• Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment - Completed by Penny Williams, Sue Kelly, Anne Randell, Katherine Firth, Sandra Dalton, Angela Wilson Zora Trajceska, Patrick Vasquez and Lampa Roberts.
• Certificate III in Community Work (Disabilities) - Completed by Steve Horne, Keryn Lettis and Anna Classy.

• Certificate I in Intro to Mental Health - Rob Moran, Sue Kelly, Sandra Dulton, Katherine Firth, Angela Wilson, Zora Trajceska, Neesha Eckersley, Louise Doyle, Jade Lucas and Lampa Roberts.

The Martial Arts program is designed to improve hand-eye coordination, strength, power and flexibility as well as increasing self esteem and confidence. The overwhelming reaction from the guys doing it however, is that it's fun. They are eager to go to martial arts, enthusiastic to join in with all activities and are getting better and better every week.

Anna-Marie (pictured punching Penny) has been attending Martial Arts for three weeks and is definitely feeling the benefits. Anna-Marie thinks "it's fantastic to learn in case of danger. I love it and so do the rest of us".

The NSW Sports Council for the Disabled runs a huge variety of programs from gymnastics to sign language and will run any program that people want if they can find enough interested people. To find out more email SportsCouncil@bigpond.com or phone (02) 46289240.

The guys from BAW would like to thank Maree, their teacher, for all the fun they're having.