Jeanette Vannapraseuth

My name is Jeanette Vannapraseuth and I have only recently joined the Assembly with the intake earlier this year. I have however been involved with Assembly community projects such as social prescribing for over a year.

As well as being a mum and wife, I am a person with a disability and chronic illness which sees me in a wheelchair full time and this resulted in me making the decision to retire from paid work some time ago. Prior to this I was the area general manager for Telstra in Eastern Victoria which required me to work between two offices – Traralgon and Frankston and travel many kms to manage a very large stakeholder base.

During this time I was able to develop many skills not least of all, public speaking, representing my organisation at many levels, Involvement in local business groups, represent my company at formal occasions (at times as MC) planning for infrastructure, assisting small businesses to construct business plans,  and so much more.

Even though I am no longer in the paid workforce, I believe I still have much to offer the community and having a chronic illness and a significant mobility disability (wheelchair user) I have had many and varied experiences when utilising the health system,  hence my decision to use the skills I learned through my employment to possibly improve the quality of life for others who may not have the ability to use their voice as I do. As well as the Assembly, I am also a board member for Gippsland Disability Advocacy Inc and Churchill Neighbourhood House. I also sit on the rural access committee for Latrobe City Council and am a member of a project to develop Person Centred Emergency Preparedness for People with a Disability through the UNSW.

I have been involved with the social prescribing project for many months. This has included my participation as a guest speaker at a forum on this subject. Following this forum I have become very interested in what the Assembly represents and what it’s role is in the community and decided I liked what I saw and wanted to be more involved in the future if this was possible.

In five years I would like to see the Assembly being very much embedded in the community and accepted as playing a very significant role in improving health and wellbeing for everyone. I hope to be a very active participant in achieving this.