Caterina’s story: Change the story

Caterina’s story is one of self-discovery. It’s about not letting one moment in time control how you live the rest of your life. This is a story of coming out of your shell and getting through adversity into a place of happiness, whilst building supported relationships.

Video Transcript:

Raida: We assist people who suffer from various disabilities when finding sustainable employment. My name is Raida Asami. I’m a recruitment partner with MTC Australia. I work in the Disability Employment Services section. When we first meet with our clients, we listen to them, understand their needs, understand their mental or physical barrier, and then work with them in gaining sustainable employment.

Caterina: I think it’s very hard for people to find work when they got anxiety. I’m Caterina Miller, and I’m from Panania. In 2016, I was just going shopping. All of a sudden, this thing sort of hit my heart, it started beating fast, and I was walking out like I went crazy. I was really scared. When I got home, I told my husband. He took me to the doctors, and they found out that this is anxiety, a panic attack.

Raida: With people with mental illness, they seclude themselves. They don’t have any confidence and they don’t do well at interviews. So that’s where we come in and we actually assist them, give them interview questions that promote them ourselves. That interaction gives them opportunity to feel that “hey I can do this”.

Raida: We had the Can Van in Revesby. We were just basically approaching people in the community letting the community know how we can support them in finding employment. Can Van is a promotion for MTC. We basically park it in various places and we just talk to people that are walking past and that’s a way of us being part of the community. This is how we met Caterina and how she came to sign up with us

Caterina: They supported me. It just feels like we became friends.

Raida: She is more bubbly now, she’s happier and she loves to get up and go to work.

Caterina: I’m working as a driver with people with disability. I’m meeting more different people.

Fatima: Caterina’s been great. She’s a very bubbly, lovely lady, she puts her clients before herself which makes a lot of their trips enjoyable. My name is Fatima. I’m the director of Nonabel Transport. We transport kids with special needs to and from school and we work with NDIS clients as well.

Caterina: I use to be a very shy person that didn’t want to talk to anyone, and now I really open up and talk to everyone.

Raida: I do hope that Catrina can work up to her retirement with Nonabel. I can see that happening.

Caterina: In the future I’ll be really happy if I’ve still got this job. I’m proud of myself that I’m doing this.