John’s story: Change the story
John’s story: Change the story
John’s story is one of a job seeker with disability who has ridden the wave of long-term unemployment. Out of work since 2012, John has faced many barriers that have led to anxiety, lack of self-confidence and little hope. Now armed with the right support and connections from his Recruitment Partner, Wendy, John’s story is changing. This is a story of how patience and perseverance can steer you in the right direction.
Video Transcript:
Wendy: Gladstone’s quite a transient place. It goes up and down in population. At the moment, it’s got a bit of a downturn, but there’s going to be a few more job prospects, which is promising. It’s an industrial town, so we do have, you know, the different plants in town with the power station, and we have one of the biggest ports in the southern hemisphere.
Wendy: I’m Wendy Hannon. I’m a recruitment partner from Community Solutions. We are Disability Employment Services, so we may have somebody who has got an illness or has been injured or with a disability. We found sustainable employment tending to their needs.
John: I’m John Johnston. I live in Calliope, which is on the outskirts of Gladstone, I’m a machinery operator by trade.
Wendy: John, when he first came, was he was, you know, very quiet, withdrawn, had some anxiety. He was been sitting for a couple of years due to an injury. He’d lost faith and basically felt that he was going nowhere.
John: I’ve been unemployed for three years. Some people say that money is not everything. It’s pretty hard to survive without a decent income you’re not going to have the quality of life and satisfaction that you will achieve without being employed. It just seems so hard to get back in to the rhythm of things, it just wasn’t happening.
Wendy: He came towards with very little hope and job prospects. He didn’t think you would ever be able to find employment or find a career path in his chosen field.
John: Community Solutions has done well by me. I’ve been to a lot of employment companies, and all that seem to have done was take me name and address and didn’t give me any feedback, or just didn’t worry about you. But then I went to Community Solutions, and Wendy was my employment provider. She just went out of her way to get me a job and like within the first couple of weeks she found me employment. I mean, maybe only temporary for three, three or four weeks but I was just so over the moon about it. That sort of broke hat barrier that put me back in to the workforce.
Wendy: He’s grown a lot in the past six months, he’s now a little bit more confident within his self-image. He’s basically financially secure and hoping to move on in to some new employment.
John: I was so pleased with it, as soon as I got my second weeks pay, I actually bought her a bunch of flowers.
Wendy: He says, all nobody’s helped me as much as you guys have. So he’s always very positive and feels that he’s been propped up a little bit and there is hope. I’m gonna be so happy when John falls into some full-time work. I’ll be there and I’ll be cheering them on.
John: I’m working on machinery on subdivisions. It’s what I do, that’s what I’ve been doing for 20 years now, you know. I wouldn’t still be doing it if I didn’t like it. That would be my ideal job, yeah.