Brent’s story of meaningful, sustained employment
Brent’s story of meaningful, sustained employment
Brent‘s story of finding the right workplace and supports has given him a sense of purpose and achievement.
Living and working in Bowen
Brent is 39 years old and lives with intellectual disability. He lives in Bowen, at the top of the Whitsundays, Queensland, population 12,300. He enjoys going to the footy in his spare time. He volunteers at the Bowen Seagulls games, selling food and chatting to his mates and fellow spectators while watching the game. Brent is on the DSP and is an NDIS participant. He has been in Disability Employment Services (DES) through CoAct/Community Solutions Bowen since October 2022.
Before registering for DES with CoAct/Community Solutions, Brent had previously worked at the Endeavour Foundation Retail Store in Bowen for 10 years. He enjoyed going to work each day and found it very rewarding. Brent was crushed when he lost his employment when the worksite closed its doors as a result of COVID-19 in 2020.
After a couple of years of not working, Brent was finding his life not as fulfilling and he became bored.
Community Connections
Bowen is a small town with limited employment opportunities, and as Brent’s current DES Recruitment Partner Daniel McGee says, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.
Brent was in the right place at the right time and knew the right person.
Luckily for Brent, he knew Nadine – a Recruitment Partner from CoAct/Community Solutions Bowen. This was through his connections with the Endeavour Foundation – the parent company of Community Solutions. In October 2022 was having a chat with her. She suggested he register for DES and that they could work together to find him a new job. Brent was already receiving NDIS support through Bowen Flexi Care, and one of his NDIS goals was “I would like to look for work opportunities that interest me and help me be part of the community”.
Time for building relationship key
At Brent’s comprehensive initial appointment with Nadine, they undertook CoAct’s Work Life Plan assessment. This guided assessment helped Brent to talk about his interests, transferrable skills and goals. Nadine assessed whether Brent needed help connecting to other community supports to build his work capacity. Brent’s support network was already wide and strong, so they were able to focus on getting to work with finding a suitable job.
Nadine ensured they had time for their appointments to build a trusted relationship. This enabled them to get to know each other. After Nadine had a thorough understanding of who Brent was, they worked together to update his resume. She then began to approach employers that would be a good fit for Brent. Brent’s main employment goal was to work somewhere where he was liked, and was interested in work that suited his abilities, including cleaning, greeting customers or stacking shelves.
Brent’s current Recruitment Partner, Daniel says, “Nadine had a lot of time with him. They went around town with resumes, tailored to showcase his skills, interests and strengths. They really focused on what type of roles Brent wanted to do”.
Local knowledge and community connections
When Brent undertook the CoAct Work Life Plan in his initial appointment, it was established that one of the things he enjoyed doing was gardening work. Brent used to help the lawn mowing man that did the gardens and lawn mowing at his respite centre, Bowen Flexi Care. After several months of Brent’s job search, Nadine was informed that Flexi Care’s gardener was no longer able to continue doing his role, and she jumped on the opportunity for someone to fill this position.
Nadine had an established relationship with Bowen Flexi Care, so she approached them to see if there was a potential of a role for Brent. Brent had voluntarily been doing the gardening at site for many years and thoroughly enjoyed doing it.
Nadine met with Bowen Flexi Care’s General Manager to discuss if there could be a paid position with enough hours to meet Brent’s benchmark of 8 fully supported hours per week.
Job carving for long-term success
Elise and Nadine discussed other jobs on the site that they would really like help with. This enabled Nadine to carve a position for Brent that would benefit the employer and one that Brent would feel proud of accomplishing. They designed a role that matched Brent’s skills, interests and capabilities.
Nadine and Elise worked together to develop a job description of basic garden maintenance tasks, and Brent officially started working in his role at Flexi Care in June 2023.
Since then, Brent has worked 8 hours per week across three days, fully supported by his Flexi Care support workers, which Brent accesses through his NDIS plan. He recently celebrated achieving a year of employment at Flexi Care!
Growing skills, a sense of purpose
Brent enjoys the work he does at Bowen Flexi Care and loves interacting with their customers and his colleagues.
With his support worker supervising, he mows lawns, maintains the gardens, takes rubbish to the dump, and washes and vacuums vehicles.
Brent also mows and whipper snips the gardens of Bowen Flexi Care’s other two respite houses when needed, depending on the weather and growth. The other job that uses the rest of his time is to wash and vacuum the Flexi Care cars.
Brent has learnt how to check the oil and to top up the windscreen whipper water dispensers. Brent has his support workers to help him keep his mind on the present task.
CoAct/Community Solutions also regularly visits Brent on-site, with Daniel saying it “keeps his enthusiasm up”.
Brent loves showing off all the good work he has done.
Practical supports
Before starting with Bowen Flexi Care, CoAct/Community Solutions purchased Brent some steel cap boots to wear on the days he is mowing and whipper snipping. He looks very smart in them and wears them with pride. He also has a work shirt which helps him to better understand when it’s ‘work time’ and not.
“It helps me a lot”, says Brent.
Intensive ongoing support for sustainable employment
Along with his support worker (which he accesses through Flexi Care) who attends his shifts, Daniel visits Brent on-site at Flexi Care regularly. He is also available on the phone to chat when needed.
Brent also attends regular fortnightly appointments at the CoAct/Community Solutions office. This allows Daniel to check in and discuss any issues that Brent might need help with.
Brent finds it helpful having Daniel there to talk to. They chat about what’s been happening at work and problem solve where needed. When Brent gets stuck in his routine, Daniel is there to help and work out how they can change it up and do his work tasks differently, so Brent stays motivated and interested in his work.
Daniel helps me mix things up.
Brent’s outlook is bright, as he continues to be fulfilled by his work. He is saving for a holiday and hopes that in time his work hours will increase, too.
If, like Brent, you would like personalised, dedicated support in your employment journey contact our friendly team today.
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