Support Worker Portrait — Director
Marisa Vong
Director
Founded BrightPath in 2016 after fifteen years in disability services. Still does a monthly shift on the floor because she says you forget things otherwise.
About us
Support built on turning up.
BrightPath Supports has provided NDIS services across Greater Sydney since 2016. We are not the biggest provider in the state and we are not trying to be.
Team Portrait — BrightPath Supports
280+Participants supported
140Support workers
8Sydney regions
2016Operating since
Who we are
A provider that fits around people, not rosters.
We support more than 280 participants across eight regions of Greater Sydney, with a team of around 140 support workers. Most of them live in the suburbs where they work, which is not an accident — it is the single thing that makes reliable support possible.
Our services span daily living, community participation, supported independent living, respite, coordination, transport, life skills and in-home support. Participants commonly use two or three together, on one roster, with one point of contact.
We are a registered NDIS provider and we work with self-managed, plan-managed and NDIA-managed participants.
Support Worker and Participant Outdoors
Our story
It started with a roster that made no sense.
In 2016 Marisa Vong was a team leader at a large provider in Western Sydney. One of the participants she supported, a man in his thirties who worked Saturday mornings at a hardware store, kept being rostered support at 9am on Saturdays. He asked four times to move it. The roster did not move, because the roster was built around staff availability rather than around him. Eventually he stopped going to work.
Marisa left three months later and started BrightPath from her lounge room in Parramatta with one other support worker and four participants. The operating principle was simple and has not changed: the roster bends around the person.
Ten years on we are a team of 140 across eight regions. The business has grown in ways we did not plan — SIL homes, a coordination team, a training programme. What has not changed is that every new participant is asked the same first question. What does a good week look like for you?
We still get things wrong. When we do, we say so, fix it, and write down what we learned. That is the whole method.
Our mission
To provide NDIS supports that fit around the lives people actually lead — reliable, respectful, and shaped by the person receiving them rather than the organisation delivering them.
Our vision
A Sydney where disabled people choose their support with the same ease anyone else chooses a service — and where "we will have to check the roster" is never the answer to a reasonable request.
What we stand for
Six things we actually do
Values are only worth writing down if they change a decision. These ones do.
You are in charge
Every decision about your support is yours to make. Our job is to give you real options and honest information, not to steer you.
Say the hard thing kindly
If we cannot deliver something, if a match is not working, or if another provider suits you better, we will tell you.
Show up
Reliability is the whole job. A brilliant support worker who is late twice a week is not a brilliant support worker.
Everyone belongs
All abilities, cultures, genders, sexualities and faiths. Workers matched on language and culture wherever we can.
Aim to be needed less
Good support builds capability. If you need fewer hours from us next year, that is a result we are proud of.
Safety is not paperwork
Safeguarding is a daily practice, not an annual audit. Everyone here knows how to raise a concern.
Our people
Meet the team
A small leadership team, a large field team, and a deliberate policy of keeping the gap between them narrow.
Support Worker Portrait — Service Manager
Daniel Okafor
Service Manager
Oversees service delivery across all eight regions. Former occupational therapist, which shows in how carefully he reads a support plan.
Support Worker Portrait — Support Coordinator
Aroha Tipene
Support Coordinator
Specialises in complex plans and first-time participants. Has a reputation for getting straight answers out of the NDIA.
Team Training Session
Quality and safeguarding
The unglamorous part, done properly.
Safeguarding only works when it is ordinary. Ours is built into weekly routine rather than saved up for audit season.
- Registered NDIS provider, audited against the NDIS Practice Standards
- NDIS Worker Screening Check and Working with Children Check for every worker
- Mandatory training in safeguarding, manual handling and infection control
- Incident reporting reviewed weekly by the Service Manager
- Participant feedback and complaints acknowledged within two business days
- Behaviour support plans written by qualified practitioners and reviewed six-monthly
If something goes wrong, you can raise it with any staff member, through our feedback form, or directly with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. We will never discourage you from doing the latter.
Ready to talk about your support?
Tell us a little about what you need and we will call you back within one business day. No obligation, no pressure, and nothing locked in until you are ready.