It  began with a story all too familiar…

One receives a diagnosis, one tries to understand the condition, one reaches out for support and understanding but… struggles to find people who even know about disorders of the corpus callosum (DCC), let alone live with one!

For many years, the only support that Australians could find was a group in the USA, the ACC Listserv. That was an email group made up of other parents from around the world.  This was a wonderful initial discovery but the problem was that the medical and education systems in the two countries were vastly different. Trying to find answers in our own country and support from others nearby, was hard. A lucky few found others in their communities but most struggled on alone, trying to help their child or adult with a DCC and to get others to understand something that they, themselves, struggled to understand.

Through the US Listserv, one mum tried to get Australians together in our own country but it was still hard to find people and getting the word out was difficult. Many  were still searching and not finding answers.   It all came together with Facebook.  A Perth mother of two boys with a DCC started an Australian Facebook group in 2010 and trawled through many other groups to find Australians with a DCC connection, to join her new Facebook ACC group. Through this connection, a Melbourne mum took the leap to organise a committee and AusDoCC was born on April 11, 2012, when the first official meeting was held by Skype. Nine excited mothers spoke together for the first time, beginning the first Australian, non-profit, DCC support organisation.

We all found that there was very little information on DCC within Australia and until recently, DCC have been largely unrecognised and underdiagnosed here. With advances in imaging technology they are now being diagnosed very early in life and often even prior to birth. Some adults are also discovering that they have a DCC and this diagnosis is providing an explanation and understanding of many of their lifelong difficulties.  Most Australian medical and educational professionals have had little or no experience with individuals with a DCC. We are hoping to expand the knowledge and support for all Australians diagnosed with a DCC and their caregivers.

Goals at the beginning of AusDoCC were:

• Recognition as a Health Promotion Charity and the Tax Deductible Gift endorsement (DGR)
• Regular meet and greets for individuals, families and carers,
• Printable handouts and educational materials,
• The first Australian ausDoCC Conference—complete with speakers from research and medical fields, service providers and of course individuals and families affected by a disorder of the corpus callosum.
• Media and social media campaigns to raise awareness

UPDATE: Dec, 2015. We are excited to say that all those goals have been achieved. Future goals are:

• celebrate an annual corpus callosum awareness day on July 2,
• hold conferences in a different capital city every 2 years
• organise family meetups and information seminars
• raise our profile and the community awareness of disorders of the corpus callosum.
• grow the adults’ support group
• gather a consortium of professional research, educational and medical advisors.
• gain financial support to provide quality materials and world class speakers at conferences

UPDATE: May 2017. The 2015 goals have been achieved or are ongoing. New goals:

• growing the adults’ support group to initiate an adults with DCC conference
• planning conferences for 2019 and 2021 in capital cities
• writing a picture story book about an Australian character with a DCC
• planning coordinated, regular meet ups in every state
• improving and maintaining our website to be a valuable source of information
• producing a best practices document
• producing quarterly newsletters with a new theme and increased content
• recognising our first patron of AusDoCC
• producing information kits for teachers and health professionals
• finding champion businesses and individuals to financially help AusDoCC to achieve some aims
• training volunteer committee members to assist members and effectively grow the organisation
• advocating for greater awareness of DCC in health and political communities
• raising funds to assist with research to find causes of ACC and best management practices for families and individuals
• to ROAR for AusDoCC members to gain Recognition, Opportunities, Access and Resources

UPDATE: July 2019. The 2017 goals have been achieved or are ongoing. New goals:

• having future conferences for adults with DCC after the successful inaugural conference in 2018
• continuing to offer major conferences to cater for kids and adults with a DCC and their professionals,  families and friends.
• growing our funds to facilitate more effective operations and resources
• continuing to embed our mascot, Edna the fat tailed dunnart, in our events and identity. Completing the picture story book and including her in all newsletters
• establishing funded meetups in each state
• initiating DCC further information days in capital cities
• developing a new website to reflect the changing knowledge base and broader offerings from AusDoCC
• advocating to government bodies to gain better recognition for DCC, as a key diagnosis
• increasing international collaboration with the global science/research community
• increasing international collaboration with other national DCC support groups
• continuing the quarterly newsletter and growing the scope of content and distribution
• initiating a Friends of AusDoCC group to build our supporters and volunteers who wish to assist with events and operations
• finding champion businesses and individuals to financially help AusDoCC to achieve some aims
• offering peer support training for carers and having a pool of people to support newly diagnosed families/individuals
• finalising our new information resources for professionals, individuals, families and friends and distributing them
• developing a new membership welcome pack and introducing meetup kits 
• sending birthday cards to everyone with a DCC
• building the capacity of health and educational professionals with tools and information
• implementing administration and operations training for committee members to improve efficiency and build knowledge to effectively operate AusDoCC as a vibrant, meaningful organisation.
• actively strengthening the profile of AusDoCC and corpus callosum disorders