Category: volunteering

My name is Asta Beavis. I am the Client Service Manager at Endeavour Group Australia; I support our coordinators in the delivery of services, such as community access, accommodation and drop in support. However at the moment I also have a project role ensuring our organisation is ready for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

This November will mark my fifth year with Endeavour. Before that I had ten years with another disability organisation based in Newcastle. I started as a first year university student. I was studying psychology and was told to get work experience in the social services sector. I chose a disability organisation. Originally the plan was to build my networks so
that finding a supervisor later in my degree would be easier. However I ended up loving the work so much that I began a full time role in the sector.

You see my experience of disability began with my family. I have a brother with an intellectual disability and I have a sister with profound hearing impairment. When my older brother was going through high school he didn’t have a great time. He was bullied a lot. He would come home in tears; he wouldn’t want to go to school. I couldn’t understand why people thought he was different. I didn’t see him as different.

But as I got older, I understood that because his speech was a little impaired and he’s hard to understand, that’s why people decided to pick on him. He was an easy target, I guess, because he wasn’t able to defend himself.

Since then I’ve always been passionate about making sure there were advocates, people who would assist and empower people to become independent. I personally wanted to help people to have an opinion, to be able to speak their opinion, to contribute to community and society and not be afraid to speak up.

We still need to educate the wider community; make sure people are all on the same page. There are still lots of perceptions out there for people with a disability. It’s our role to change that. This is particularly important because the NDIS is putting a lot on community. The NDIS wants to utilise the community more. However we also need to look at how we can assist the community to be ready for this responsibility.

At Endeavour our programs are designed around what people want. This might be something an individual is interested in or something for the group to do.  We ensure our clients choose what they do, choose their life, choose their journey, choose their goals.

It can take a little while for people to be comfortable saying, “This is what I want to do with my life, this is my goal.” We have person centred planning which is fantastic but it can take a little while for people to speak up.  Some of our clients have never had this opportunity before. Some are reluctant because it might be something only they have thought of. It’s not only about the person with a disability. For many goals to be realistic we need the community to help us.

This is the second year Endeavour has participated in projectABLE. To students wanting to know what the NDIS is all about I would say this.  It’s about empowering people to achieve their goals and dreams and having the extra support to do that.

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WANT TO ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO  SPEAK UP?  START WITH A PROJECT-ABLE WORKSHOP.  ENDEAVOUR ARE HOSTING WORKSHOPS THROUGHOUT TERM 3. 

My name is Alyse Humphreys-Kearnes. I am the Human Resources Adviser at Macarthur Disability Services (MDS) in Campbelltown. I have been with MDS for six years.

Before starting with MDS I hadn’t had much exposure to disability. I know a lot of people get into the sector because of their personal experiences, perhaps through a family member or friend, but I didn’t have this sort of experience or background.

For me it was more about my own personal values. I wanted to make a difference. I was studying Human Resources but I wasn’t drawn to work in the corporate space. I didn’t want to end up working in a 9-5 job and then just going home. I wanted to be part of something bigger.

When I applied for a role with MDS I linked in with their values straight away. In the recruitment process they were talking about how important honesty, integrity and social justice were to the organisation. That really resonated with me. Here was a role where I could make a difference in people’s lives.

Social justice underpins everything we do. That and our strength-based approach. It’s how we go about supporting people in their social and community environments. It’s how we develop our own staff.  The work culture we create has a huge impact on the quality and level of service we provide.

From a HR perspective, I would tell young people considering a career in the sector that there are many ways to get in, on many different levels. You can enter through front-line support. Or you could go on and do further study and come in through a more specialised filed. So someone with a background in psychology might enter as a behavioural support specialist.

Once you’re in, the good thing about places like MDS and other organisations is that they’re very supportive of internal movement and progression. Most of our staff at MDS originally started as support workers and worked their way up into specialist roles and management positions. This includes people within our executive team.

I always suggest volunteering as a stepping stone to working in the sector. Volunteering is a great way to gain practical experience, often making you more employable. It also helps you to figure out if this is something you really want to do.

Our involvement with projectABLE is to help generate more interest in the sector with young people. Many organisations are going to expand under the NDIS. We want to ensure there is a pool of capable, passionate people to fill these roles.

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WANT TO TO BE PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER? START WITH A PROJECT-ABLE WORKSHOP.  MACARTHUR DISABILITY SERVICES ARE HOSTING WORKSHOPS THROUGHOUT TERM 3.