Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Kim Stokes. 

 

Background: 

My career includes close to 30 years experience in the media, marketing and engagement space which is inclusive of over 10 years experience 

in commercial radio as a breakfast presenter; both of these stations being the highest rating commercial stations in the Toowoomba and Darling Downs market so; 

I am well known in the region. 

 

I am a nationally experienced professional voice-over artist. 

I am an award winning script writer. 

I am a highly renowned MC and presenter.  

I founded Kim Stokes Communications in 1998 and this Media, Marketing and Engagement business is still in operation today. 

My husband & I were also previous owners of a very successful retail franchise business in Grand Central. 

I own a Toowoomba residence.  

 

I received my first award for community service when I was in year 11 at St Saviours College being named Interactor of the Year by Rotary Toowoomba. 

At 17 I began volunteering at Hamewith Toowoomba, Queensland's first residential accommodation for children with an intellectual disability. 

This facility was managed by The Endeavour Foundation. 

 

I have been at the helm or a significant part of hundreds of fundraising and community awareness initiatives throughout my career including the Toowoomba Hospice, the Heart Foundation, Teen Challenge, Ronald McDonald House, White Ribbon / Toowoomba Together and Give Me 5 Five For Kids raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Toowoomba Hospital Foundation. 

 

In 2015 I was a finalist for the Community Dedication Award for the Women in Business Awards of Australia.    

 

With the Toowoomba Business Disability Awards; I have been involved in a significant capacity from concept to execution since it's inception in 2012. This has involved event 

planning through to sponsorships and MC'ing; working alongside key notes like Kurt Fearnley, Moira Kelly AO and Matt Rogers & Chloe Maxwell. 

In the past 2 years I have takenon being the Principal Sponsor of this event. 

 

In October of this year, I MC'd The Breast Night Ever fundraiser for the Love Your Sister Organisation with over 400 guests. Close to $65 000 was raised to assist with cancer research. I also organised all of the media for this event from The Toowoomba Chronicle, Triple M, ABC Southern Qld, 92.9FM, Win News, Nine News and 7 News 

(with 7 news also attending on the night) and, we used our graphics team to produce the Big Screen Power Point for the event, all as part of my philanthropic service to the 

Toowoomba & Darling Downs region. 

 

I professionally mentor a number of local business owners and people of influence including Gay Hold. I have done this for 7 years. 

Gay is passionate about Community Projects and employs 2 people with a Disability in her local Hairdressing Salon. Additionally, I mentor Abbey Dodds, a PIR Support Facilitator Toowoomba Clubhouse and Jade Morgan a Grade 2 Nurse for Darling Downs Health Service and a Nursing Assistant with the Hospice. 

 

I was invited to speak at the recent QDN Changing Lives, Changing Communities Forum recently on how Media sees Inclusion and what this can look like in the future. 

I hope to do these type of speaking engagements a lot more in the future. 

 

Other new initiatives I am involved with include: The establishment of The Live To Ride Foundation with Mick Jackson and Inclusion Access with Josh Marshall. 

 

 

My main driver for Community Inclusion Advocacy: 

There have been a number of challenges within my family (and I have often spoken of these on stage and in mentoring sessions) which have afforded me the opportunity 

and blessing to have great insight and strong opinion into adversity and diversity.

 

These include alcohol and drug addiction, domestic violence, chronic illness with significant impairment including mobility, cancer, heart transplant death, open heart surgery,

diabetes, mental health and deafness. We are blessed by our journey to understand why inclusion is so vital. 

  

As an example, my Dad had schizophrenia. He functioned very well with medication for most of my life in fact. 

At the age of 70 however, as a result having been taken off his medication for a year, I would be the one who would eventually petition to have him involuntarily 

accessed through the court. Heartbreaking for a child to do. 

For the remaining 8 years of his life I would be his mental health advocate through an involuntary health order and I attended all but 1 of his 6 monthly tribunal hearings. 

I liaised regularly and very well with his mental health case workers and still do to this day, even after his passing. I had an incredibly close relationship with my Father and I share this example as a way to express my life experience, break down stigma and my passion to create a more inclusive world.  

 

In 2015, my 29 yr old niece who was a highly regarded SES volunteer was killed in a single vehicle accident on the way home from the Toowoomba Buisness Disability Awards. 

Elissa was attending as my special guest as she and her husband Rob have a son Michael profoundly deaf (now with cochlear implants). Michael was 8 at the time.

Elissa was credited with having Auslan being introduced into Michael's primary school, Cecil Plains State School, where it is taught to all students. 

In 2017, The Elissa Flanagan Aim High Scholarship was introduced to the Disability Awards and this year her husband Rob contributed $1000 to the prize for the winners. 

 

Following the 2018 awards, I was asked by Kila Xavier to mentor her daughter Hannah, born profoundly deaf and this years winner of the Employee of The Year Award at the 

Tmba Business Disability Awards. Hannah will graduate year 12 this week.