Office of the Public Advocate
OPA volunteer Marion Blythman has been named Ballarat Senior Volunteer of the Year for 2024.
Marion is a Regional Convener (Team Leader) of OPA’s Community Visitors Program for the Disability stream in Ballarat and the surrounding areas. She has been performing this role for the last 17 years.
Daniel Leighton, Victorian’s Acting Public Advocate, said Marion was an inspirational leader working at the ‘pointy end’ of volunteering.
Community Visitor volunteers visit disability accommodation to ensure residents are being appropriately supported, are leading meaningful lives and that their rights are upheld. Marion’s team of 10 volunteers make regular visits to 57 homes for people with disability in and around Ballarat. Many of the residents in these homes have no family or friends advocating for them and rely on other people to raise concerns or make complaints on their behalf.
‘Without Marion performing this role and leading her team, these marginalised residents in Ballarat could have no one looking out for them and reporting the findings to the wider community,’ Mr Leighton said.
