Sammy’s story: Change the story
Sammy’s story: Change the story
Sammy’s story is one of a school leaver with disability joining the world of work. It’s about Sammy getting the right support to thrive in a job that he loves. This is a story of how hard work and following your passion can lead to fulfilment and growth.
Video Transcript:
Narrator: Sammy’s Story
Sammy: Basically in my workshop right now, what I’m doing here is woodturning. I’m Sammy Lagana, I’m 19 years old, and I work at TimberCon. I’ve been working for TimberCon for two years.
Giuseppe: My name is Giuseppe Lagana, I’m Sammy Lagana’s dad. He had a work placement that was his first position, and that was in Year 11, and that didn’t work quite well. So this is where Interact came into the picture, and they were really great. They were able to suit Sammy to the job. They looked around for a position for him.
Sammy: Interact gave me an opportunity to do a traineeship with TimberCon. They understood what I was into, and when I went there, I just felt like, “This is perfect.”
Hay: My name is Hay Caswell, I’m the Managing Director of TimberCon. For some people with special needs, it can be quite difficult for them to get placements, either with work experience or in work as well. There’s a lot of fantastic people out there that unfortunately don’t get the opportunity to work, and I thought it was a good opportunity for us to be able to offer that to someone like Sammy.
Belinda: I’m Belinda Fox, I work for Interact Australia. I’m the Workforce Partner in the Plenty region. We explain to an employer how our services will not only benefit the employer and the business as a whole, but also where we come in and support the participant, whether that is with on-the-job support or outside of work, whether that will be with mental health advice through psychologists or other avenues.
Sammy: My experience with Interact has been a whole journey with them. They prepared everything for me. The amount of support they give me is just “wow”. They’ve been helping me a lot.
Hay: The piece of advice I’d like to give to other business owners is to give people like Sammy a try. I think a lot of people tend to think that they’re too busy or it’s not for them, or they’re not going to get any value out of it. But people like Sammy, and there are a lot of people out there like him, deserve a chance to be a part of society. They deserve a chance to have a job where they can come in, hang out with people, and just be like everybody else.
Belinda: Little things like that, to us, it’s little, but it’s a massive life-changing experience.
Hay: I think that as business owners, we have responsibilities for the business, and some of those responsibilities go beyond the walls that we’re in. We should try to use our businesses to do things that help other people. At the end of the day, we took a punt on something like this. We started off with a simple work experience, and it’s now transitioned into a traineeship. It’s done that because we’ve gotten such great value out of it, even just on the work experience side of things.
Sammy: I just feel very valuable there. Yeah, I do.
Giuseppe: They give you all the support that is required, but there’s a further step. They do such a wonderful job, and it’s overwhelming and fantastic.
Narrator: Join the movement for change in Disability Employment. Visit coact.org.au/change-the-story. Presented by CoAct Employment and Interact Australia.