IRT Group is one of Australia’s largest not-for-profit providers of seniors’ lifestyle and care services. Established in Wollongong in 1969, the group has Lifestyle Communities, Care Centres, In-Home Care and Wellness Programs in NSW, the ACT and South East Queensland.

IRT Group focus on providing a sustainable and profitable practice that allows for strategic and considered growth, which in turn delivers responsive and flexible services to their customers. Investment is then made into local communities to build age-friendly capacity, create partnerships, advocate for older people and support research. To this end, the group has developed a Pathways through Partnerships Program, which evolved from research undertaken by IRT and Greenacres Disability Services. The research highlighted the barriers facing ageing people with disability and their carers. In response IRT established a Steering Committee in 2011 to co-design a community that would ensure people with intellectual disability and their carers could age in place together.

A community, Kemira, was built at IRT William Beach Gardens to address the matters identified in prior research as well as operate as an avenue for ongoing consultation. The centre was designed so that the person with disability could live with their primary carer in a two-bedroom villa or side by side in one bedroom villas. Featuring 12 homes designed to the highest standards for accessibility and liveability, a five bed respite centre and community centre was also created. Kemira provides residents with an affordable and inclusive option that recognises the needs and concerns of ageing people with disabilities and their carers.

Kemira represents a new product development that exists outside of IRT’s traditional core business. It achieved success through the design of a new way of working that included the clear articulation of a customer problem, a value proposition, a solution fit and, finally, a focus on problem solving.