Connecting2Australia Bendigo gives equal work opportunities for people living with a disability
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BENDIGO residents who are living with a disability are getting stable employment opportunities thanks to a leading organisation.
About 65 people in Bendigo are employed through Connecting2Australia. The organisation, which has 12 hubs across the state, has been operating since the early 1950s.
Bendigo hub coordinator Jo Barclay said the service supports people of all abilities and ages find and maintain employment.
"When I say the word 'work', I mean work," Ms Barclay said. "They all know they're going to work and that they are earning a living."
Every employee that comes into Connecting2Australia Bendigo is given a productivity assessment after 13 weeks. That allows the organisation to determine how much they should be paid for the work they do.
In their first 13 weeks, they are paid $6 an hour, but they could be paid up to $20 an hour for their work after their assessment.
"Money is very important to them, just like the rest of us," Ms Barclay said. "But also the social aspect of things is really important to them too.
"A number of people don't want to work five days a week because they have other areas in life that are important to them - whether that be playing ten pin bowling, going to a cooking class together, or anything else that makes their life more valued."
The organisation has a range of different areas where the supported employees can work - from creating soy candles for bushfire relief, to assembling and packaging, or gardening maintenance.
"It's been a little bit tough with the gardening because of the drought," Ms Barclay said.
"But they will come and do garden maintenance as well and clean up the area for you - blowing, whipper snipping, anything that you require for your gardening.
OPPORTUNITY: Nineteen-year-old Hayley Justice, below, says she has loved working at the Bendigo hub for two days a week since December. Picture: NONI HYETT
"And you get four or five guys at once. So if you have one guy, it might take you two or three hours, but it might take our guys half an hour to get the job done."
Connecting2Australia also has a partnership with the JJ Richards Recycling Centre in Bendigo.
"Some of the guys that are there have been working there for over 30 years," Ms Barclay said. "So they are supported employees that have a facilitator with them, but they are actually able to work five days a week.
"They have their own families, they have their own houses, they have their own cars, they go on holidays.
"They have been able to have an opportunity where they are so inclusive in society that they are just like any one of us that are out there trying to make a living."
Ms Barclay said the organisation supports people of all abilities.
"In assembling and packaging, the guys do things like counting screws or putting tool-kits together," she said. "Some people can't count so what we do is we have a template.
"If they have to count 50 screws, we'll have 25 dots on a template and they have to put two screws in each dot and then they know they have 50.
"But we weigh it at the end as well to double check that what we're providing for our contractor is the right thing. It might be that someone puts the label on the bag and someone else might seal the bag."
Hayley Justice has been working as a supported employee in Bendigo since December.
"It's all good," she said. "I do the shredding down at JJ (Richards) every Wednesday when they want me to. I'm here two days a week - Wednesdays and Fridays."
Married couple Tony and Renee Bibic also work at the Bendigo site.
"I like everything here," Mrs Bibic said. "It's really good. There's friendly people, a nice atmosphere, and all different work."
It is a real community effort in Bendigo, with Connecting2Australia working with schools in the region to give pathways to young people living with a disability.
"We've partnered up with Kalianna School Bendigo, which has been really great," Ms Barclay said.
"So the Kalianna VCAL kids come out here every Tuesday morning and we donate most of our garden area to them so they can grow whatever they need to grow and do all sorts of wonderful things in the garden.
CREATIVE: Supported employees Colin Valli and Robert Spillman, above, are helping with the screen printing service. The Bendigo hub makes many items, including bags and aprons. Picture: NONI HYETT
"That allows them to reach all of their outcomes that they need to pass their VCAL. So that's been a really lovely partnership.
"With the veggies Kalianna grows, they get donated to Grow, Cook, Share. And Grow, Cook, Share needed aprons so they got us to make them.
"So it's really great to get that message out there and to get everyone to be really community minded.
"To me, community is probably the most important thing."
Ms Barclay said the organisation gives opportunities to people who may not have been given a chance by other places.
"What made me cry was I had a woman who was absolutely beautiful," she said. "She arrived by taxi in her wheelchair and came here to see me.
"She could understand everything I was saying. I found it a little bit difficult to understand what she was saying.
"But she just brought her wheelchair in here and said I just want to be like everyone else. I want an opportunity.
"That just melted my heart. So I did everything I could to make sure she got to work here."
Ms Barclay said members of the community needed to understand how valued these employees were.
"I think the most important message is that we are taking people with disabilities and giving them inclusion in society," she said. "Everybody wants to be included.
"They need to understand that everyone is a human being and everybody deserves respect.
"Just because a job is being done by someone who has a disability, doesn't mean it's a job that is undervalued. It shouldn't be undervalued.
"Everything that we send out from here has to be of top quality. So that's what's expected from us and we work in ways to make sure that people get that job done.
"The same with our gardening and our supported employees at JJ Richards.
"There are a lot of people out there in the world who are being paid to do a job who will sit there and say I'm tired today, I can't be bothered today, and they really haven't achieved anything.
"But our supported employees, they absolutely appreciate having a job."
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