COMPASS OPENS NEW CAMPUS IN NAMBOUR!

Compass has this week opened their brand new Campus in heart of Nambour! Ted O’Brien MP, Federal Member for Fairfax, officially opened the new Nambour premises, alongside Compass Founder and CEO, David Dangerfield.

“The team at Compass do a fantastic job, and I’m really honoured to support them,” Mr O’Brien said.

“I have taken an active interest in the role they play here on the Sunshine Coast, supporting people with intellectual and physical disabilities. I think that C-Square will really come to represent Compass Square in Nambour. From now on, when you think C-Square Nambour, you think Compass.

“They are going to bring such goodness to this area and I’m absolutely delighted. The real winners out of this – it isn’t Compass, it’s actually Nambour, and I’m delighted because Compass and Nambour will grow together.”

The Compass Institute provides further education, skills based training and vocational pathways to young people with intellectual and physical disabilities.

Compass Founder and CEO, David Dangerfield, said, “Compass has grown from humble origins supporting three young men with disabilities in a community hall in Palmwoods to now providing support to 166 people and their families through six campuses from Caboolture to Gympie.

“I refer to them as campuses because of their focus on learning and development opportunities. We have always challenged the implicit notion that people with a disability are liabilities requiring welfare.

“Compass is a showcase that allows people with disabilities to demonstrate that they are in fact assets to their community. Like all assets their potential is unlocked through structured learning and development programs and of course – opportunity.

“Compass also has a range of very successful social enterprises that provide the opportunity for people with disability to participate in meaningful ways in their community and to experience that sense of achievement and pride we all feel at the end of a job well done.

The new premises will allow Compass to create a new leading-edge learning and development centre in the heart of Nambour.

“Locating dynamic institutions like Compass into C-Square is going to give Nambour a real boost,” Mr O’Brien added.

“We need to more inclusive if we are going to build better and more resilient communities, and this is a great initiative.”

Looking ahead, Compass hopes to offer market stalls, art installations, music, and other performance events throughout the C-Square public spaces. Compass will also be opening a new social enterprise retail store, Wabi Sabi, in the C-Square precinct in June.

Through Compass’ innovative social enterprise model, this store will not only offer retail traineeships and vocational training opportunities to young people with disabilities but will also sell a range of products made by those who attend Compass across their six local Campuses.

You will find Compass’s new premises at C-Square, Ground Floor (Courtyard), 52-64 Currie Street, Nambour.