Latest / Sarah Knows Support Workers / Trauma-Informed NDIS Support for Young People: From Support Worker to CEO | Yosmerys Aparicio Cuencas

Transcript

Trauma-Informed NDIS Support for Young People: From Support Worker to CEO | Yosmerys Aparicio Cuencas · Sarah Knows Support Workers

0:00
Hi everyone, it's Sarah. No support workers podcast
0:03
today. I've got you yours.
0:05
I'm so excited because you like a bundle of joy and I cannot
0:08
wait to talk about all things that you're up to.
0:11
So just to give the audience a bit of a taster, can you tell us
0:14
a little bit about yourself? Yes, I am yours.
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Some people might know me from LinkedIn as the youth mentor
0:22
Queen. I gave myself that title.
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So yeah, I do. I am the founder and Director of
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Supporting Communities Australia, which is an NDS
0:34
registered provider that specializes on supporting youths
0:37
with disability and trauma backgrounds.
0:39
I have AI, have an extensive background in the out of home
0:44
care and disability sector. I was a support youth worker for
0:49
seven, almost eight years working on the floor before I
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decided to step into my own business, which is the same
0:55
thing that I've been doing for many years because I wasn't
0:58
happy how care is being done for youth because we do a lot of
1:03
let's just wait for them, it's easier and I actually feel like
1:07
we're not doing the many favours by doing things for them.
1:10
And that's how my whole business model came about, which is all
1:14
about capacity building for young people with disabilities
1:16
and joint backgrounds. To get into youth in particular,
1:19
because that's that's quite a niche area and not everyone can
1:23
do. Well, yes, actually it was a
1:27
funny story because I feel like the job found me instead of me
1:31
finding the job. I came to Australia in 2016.
1:35
I am originally from Venezuela and back home I studied
1:38
criminology. I did a little bit of work in
1:41
the prison system and back then I was very young.
1:45
But then I used to think that my impact in the life of the people
1:50
that have already been involved in the youth system was very
1:53
small. And then back then I used to
1:55
think if I can get them early, my contribution to their lives
2:00
can be so much more than getting them after they already gone to
2:04
prison. But back then, I didn't continue
2:07
doing that type of work. I went on a completely different
2:09
industry. I had a little business where I
2:13
was designing clothes and making clothes and I came to Australia
2:17
trying to pursue that. But then in he those
2:20
opportunities didn't become to fruition.
2:22
And then when it was time for me to decide where if I wanted to
2:25
stay or live, it was like, OK, there is an opportunity for you
2:29
if you go on to disability, mental health precisely.
2:33
You can stay in the country, continue your studies and get a
2:37
good job, build a career around it.
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That's how I came to disability. I was a disability support
2:42
worker, but I was basically doing all mental health.
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I was doing community participations for participants
2:49
that were in hospital, participants that were getting
2:51
out of prison, like really complex clients.
2:54
And those were my very first jobs in the disability industry
2:58
here in Australia. Then I got a job working with a
3:02
big national non for profit in the residential area.
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So it was a SEAL program and it was for younger adults that were
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exiting out of home care onto support independently.
3:15
That was my first contact with the youth because the
3:18
participants in that particular setting were 18 years old.
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They had just come out of Youth Services and I loved it with
3:25
them. Then within that same
3:27
organization, I got sent to another house where the kids
3:31
that were there, they would have disabilities, but they were
3:33
still underage. So they were like 16 years old.
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And then I was like, yes, I love this.
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I love that I could work with the teenagers.
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I didn't need to be serious. I didn't need to pretend to be a
3:46
grown up. I could be myself.
3:50
And the kids love that. And I was able to make really
3:54
good rapport with the young participants I had at that
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point. And then after that, it was like
3:59
all I wanted to do were with kids.
4:01
And then I only pursued youth worker jobs and I was I was
4:07
working mainly with intensive therapeutic care, which is the
4:10
most complex young people that you can find around.
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And yeah, they all have disabilities.
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So I worked a lot with all psychosocial disabilities,
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intellectual, neurodivergent kids, like all of those
4:25
diagnosis that come along with a history of trauma because a lot
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of the kids that we were caring for, they have been removed
4:32
since they was little from home due to disabilities, diction,
4:38
incarceration. So I did that.
4:41
That's how I work with the young people.
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It is a difficult job, but at the same time, if you teach
4:50
those kids even the smallest thing, you know how that is
4:55
going to impact their lives. You really, and it's very
4:58
tangible. It's something that you invest a
5:00
little bit of time and it's like putting AC and then after a
5:05
couple of years you see those kids and they're doing so much
5:07
better. It's just, it's just a feeling
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that in my opinion, has no comparison because it makes me
5:14
so happy to see when they learn and when I can see them
5:19
improving because you really can see improving in a young person.
5:22
You can find a young person that comes at the age of 12, very
5:26
complex and in the span of one year you see them progress a low
5:32
with good supports. You really see that, so that's
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why I love. So if we could go back just a
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little bit, if I hope you don't mind when you started as a
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support worker? Can you remember a story?
5:45
Without breaking anyone's confidentiality, that hits home.
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And you're like, you know what? I have arrived.
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This is exactly where I need to be.
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I don't remember us a moment in that stage.
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In those stages I remember a family.
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I was supporting one particularly.
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I was supporting a mum. She was in her 40s.
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She had she was a survivor of DV.
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She has severe mental health and all of her kids have been
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removed from her because of her disabilities.
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I remember supporting her to have family contact with her
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child and seeing her how I was seeing her at home every day and
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seeing her in the the community in the family contact that she
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had with that kid. I was like, OK, this is not an
6:36
easy job, but this is something that people need and it for that
6:40
particular woman, pickets was the only thing that was given
6:44
her life because all of her life was quite devastating.
6:50
Her mental health, her trauma, her physical health, even she
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was in chronic pain all the time.
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Being able to support that space for her to have her contact with
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her younger son was like, I was that person that was able to
7:08
facilitate that in that moment and it made me happy.
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So I sticked around even though she she was very difficult to
7:16
work with back. We had good moments as well, so.
7:19
You have worked for two big organizations and we're going to
7:23
name drop them. You had Wesley Mission and the
7:26
Salvation Army, your time there. How did that shape you into the
7:30
leader that you are today? Actually, my first contact with
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the youth was with Wesley Mission.
7:35
It was that particular job and I can say that those two very
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early jobs gave me most of what I have today.
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So I work with the Salvation Army before I work with Wesley
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Mission. So with the Salvation Army, I
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was in a homeless shelter in the city of Sydney.
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It's called Poster House. It's a big foster, it's a big
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homeless shelter for male, male adults.
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And in that particular job, I learned a lot about systems
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because I was quite new. I didn't know how to use all of
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these software that they use for reporting.
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I learned how to do intakes because that particular shelter
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had two settings. They had overnight setting,
8:23
which we would have to admit the homeless people for the night
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they came over, they lined outside.
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So we needed to do intakes. We'll start the intakes at 4:00
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PM and when the beds were full, that was it.
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We had a full house. So that allowed me to do
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intakes, to learn systems basically.
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That's what that job gave me, learning how things were done
8:45
here, doing referrals. We did a lot of phones, which
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I'm terrified of answering the phone, to be quite honest with
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you. But then my accent was even
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equal. My accent was even thicker back
8:57
then, so I was terrified of answering the phone because
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nobody could understand me when I was on the phone.
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So I actually learned how to pick up calls with that joke.
9:07
And I think that joke for that because when I was in the front
9:10
desk, if that phone rang, I had to pick it up and I had to give
9:14
a referral if we couldn't. Like, for example, we used to
9:16
get our referrals in that particular homeless shelter.
9:22
We used to get our calls from women with kids looking for a
9:27
bed for the night, but that was a shelter only for men, so we
9:32
needed to refer them on. So I had to do a little bit of
9:35
that when I was answering the phones.
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But yeah, that, oh, what was the machine?
9:38
It was learning the systems and learning how to do intakes and
9:42
referrals. So that kind of gave me like
9:45
coming back to, to your question, the leader that I am
9:48
today, at that point I understood that we cannot serve
9:50
everyone because that particular shelter was for one service for
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one audience and whatever we didn't do.
9:58
Yeah, sorry. Was that hard to turn people
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away? Because I could imagine it
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really would play with your heartstrings, especially if all
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sets were full. It was hard, but it was very
10:12
firm boundaries. There was no place to wiggle, so
10:16
we had a list of places that we could refer depending on the
10:20
needs. Like if it was a woman with a
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family, we would refer them to one of these shelter.
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She was a younger person, same Salvation Army had a shelter for
10:30
use. So if the person that was coming
10:33
in, we couldn't house them, we'll send them to the good
10:38
service, which was like very close by and was still in the
10:41
city area, but it was a different space.
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So that taught me that we cannot serve everyone, but then we can
10:47
have somebody in our network that's going to be able to serve
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them. That those were my first
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interactions with that and with I have everything to thank to
10:58
Wesley Mission, the Marley that hired me there.
11:02
He's my boss again because I'm training to be a positive
11:05
behaviour support practitioner and he kind enough to take me
11:10
under his wing because he's a behaviour super practitioner and
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he was the manager, hiring manager with W emission.
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I had not had a job in residential care at that point
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and he interviewed with me and he said the words that he said
11:25
to me many times after that. He said to me, if nobody gives
11:30
you an opportunity to get started, how are you going to
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get started? And I know that he is by that
11:34
because the same person has hired a friend of mine that I
11:40
recommended, saying she's keen to work, can you give her a
11:44
chance? And he said, yes, as long as
11:47
they can do the job, I am willing to take the risk of
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hiring them even without experience.
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That happened maybe four years ago.
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My friend still works for him. Two years ago, I heard that he
12:00
was hiring and I said, look, my sister's looking for work.
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She doesn't have a lot of experience.
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And he said, yes, Harry, send me her resume.
12:08
He hired my sister. My sister works for him too.
12:12
So it's about that, giving somebody an opportunity because
12:17
you never know if they're going to be great, but if nobody opens
12:20
the door for them, how are they going to be great?
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So I have a lot of respect for him.
12:26
He's an NDS provider in Melbourne.
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I could give him a shout out. His name is Ray Ray Stacy and
12:33
he's he's the founder of Positive Care and supports.
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He's really good for positive behaviour support.
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So if anybody is leaning, you can find him on LinkedIn and on
12:45
his website. Yeah.
12:47
So with Wesley Mission, that was my first connection to what the
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child care, not, not the child care, the child protection and
12:56
the child protection system, how the kids were removed, how they
13:00
were put in places in false take.
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I never knew any of that because obviously my country, we don't
13:06
have that. So those were my first contacts
13:08
supporting young people when they were young adults because
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they were already 18, but they had exited out of home care or
13:16
foster care and they came on to disability services that were
13:19
founded under the NDIS. So that was how I found my
13:23
passion was the emission. So I have everything to to thank
13:26
that job for they're coming to. Are they the reason why you
13:31
started supporting Communities Australia?
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No, not really. I I would think that I went on
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and I worked for another national non for profit that I'm
13:39
not going to mention they actually been fined by the NDIS.
13:43
The biggest fine any company has received.
13:46
It was there. All right, we'll let the
13:48
audience put the puzzle together.
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If they go to my room, I'm talking about I resigned that
13:53
job. I resigned that job after a lot
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of issues, a lot of things that were not sitting right, a lot of
14:02
organizational changes. Yeah, that's when I said, OK,
14:06
why do I keep pushing to change something that I cannot change?
14:10
The organization is what it is and I'm not going to make them
14:14
fit me and I'm not going to be able to bring my values and my
14:17
vision into a national non for profit.
14:20
It doesn't work like that. They do things the way that
14:23
they're used to doing it and they do think how they they do
14:26
things how they think they need to be done.
14:28
Not necessarily how they should be done, but what works for
14:32
them. So being there, I cannot say
14:37
that I had a bad time. I worked for them for five
14:40
years. I learned a lot.
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I supported many of young people, amazing young people.
14:46
I saw the young people grow, transition to NDIS supports.
14:50
We transitioned them beautifully and I received a lot of
14:55
training, specialized training to support youth, which was
14:58
great. Like they are good for that, for
15:00
training the staff. And I love my job for most of
15:04
it, for most of it. I really love working there.
15:06
But was there a moment? You're like, right, There's So
15:11
was it like when you were there, was there a moment?
15:13
You're like, right, this doesn't fit.
15:15
Well, I can build it myself anyway.
15:19
Yeah, it was towards the end of my past day and it was a lot of
15:26
changes. So they merged twice in 1D.
15:29
So they emerged the first time. And when they merged, when I
15:32
first joined them, they had installed a new hierarchy where
15:36
teams were sitting one on top of the other.
15:39
So we were supposed to be side by side teams, which I really
15:42
loved about the organization when I joined them.
15:44
And I had a really good man at that time and he was actually
15:49
really amazing guy. He was very supportive of the
15:52
whole team. We were like we were a well
15:55
oiled machine. Everything worked because we
15:58
were sitting side by side. A couple of years back the
16:02
organization merged and that side by side hierarchy turned
16:07
out turned into a pyramid again. Like from the top, then those in
16:14
the bottom, which end UPS being us, the support worker, coping
16:18
everything that we shouldn't be coping because we're not making
16:20
decisions. Yeah, which is a really sad
16:23
part. Was it from that hierarchy that
16:27
you know, that you talk of the pyramid that made was like made
16:33
you think as as a founder, you know, like I have to change
16:36
because what's going on at the moment I'm not happy with and
16:39
therefore I can do it myself. So as they found out, what has
16:44
been your hardest part from going from a support worker to a
16:47
CEO? Because the shift's really
16:50
quick. Everything I have to make
16:53
decisions that I never had to before.
16:55
And I also know if something goes wrong, I need to fix it.
16:59
Whereas before it was like, Yep, my shift is finished.
17:04
You'll see me next time and I will just go.
17:07
And I actually, Sarah, funny enough, I never took a
17:11
managerial position when I was working for other people.
17:14
Pardon not one. I never took a managerial
17:18
position in any of my girls. Never.
17:22
I never wanted it. I never wanted it because it was
17:25
taking me away from what I loved, which was working with
17:28
the kids. And then I I used to think, why
17:31
do I want to put myself in a position?
17:33
And that's really quite hard and difficult.
17:35
I know that I really struggled with that as well because I, you
17:38
know, I picked this sector because I liked being around
17:41
people and the people that we served were my my favorite
17:43
people to be around. The banter is top notch.
17:45
Like you're never going to get, you're never going to find a
17:48
funnier, down to earth bunch of humble people than working in
17:52
this sector. Yes.
17:54
Look, I never wanted that, so I actively refused A Nigerial
18:01
position more than once, to be honest with you.
18:05
I was like, why would I want that?
18:08
I can. See, now that you're quite big
18:10
into the female founder space that you know that's a part that
18:14
tickles your heart, what does it mean to.
18:16
You, you know, a lot of the times people think that you
18:20
cannot be feminine and at the same time be smart and have a
18:25
lot of opinions. And I'd like to disagree with
18:28
that because I can still be a woman, I can still be feminine,
18:34
I can still be soft, but I can also run a business.
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So I love that. I believe that not only female
18:42
empowerment, I empower everyone. And if anybody has seen my posts
18:46
on LinkedIn, they know that I even cheat for the freaking
18:49
electrician when they finish the job.
18:52
That was and that was a true story.
18:54
I was like good job. And when I realized I'm like, I
18:57
apologize to the guy because I felt so embarrassed.
18:59
So would you just, would you say that besides hyping up other
19:03
people, what does good mentoring look like for you as a leader
19:08
now? Mentoring people, not just the
19:10
people that we serve, but other business owners like yourself.
19:12
Look, we have to be genuine, we have to be who we are.
19:16
You cannot build rapport with somebody if you've been fake.
19:22
So you need to like, that's the one thing that I tell everyone,
19:26
be yourself and me. Throughout the years, that has
19:31
been my strongest tool to support young people and to
19:35
guide them into learning how to make decisions, how to do their
19:40
things, how to do life just by being honest.
19:43
And I always say, even if one day I recall precisely days
19:47
where I was feeling a little bit sick and the young people coming
19:50
me up, what is happening? Why did you do you look sad
19:53
today? And I believe, no, I'm not sad,
19:55
I'm just feeling a little bit sick.
19:56
They can understand that. But if they come and told me you
20:01
look a bit sad and I tell them, no, I'm fine, they see right
20:04
through it. So why not?
20:07
I believe in brutal honesty. You need to own whatever it is
20:12
that you're feeling. You cannot dump your personal
20:15
life onto other people. But if you're not 100%, you can
20:18
accept that you're human. You don't have to be 100% every
20:22
day. So I believe that to be probably
20:25
#1 be yourself. So a lot of the people that come
20:30
into our sector, especially in youth, have been smacked down by
20:34
a lot of different things across their life, right?
20:37
How do you help young people build confidence and
20:40
independence again? It takes time.
20:43
It takes a lot of consistency. You need to keep showing up even
20:47
when it gets hard because they will push you away.
20:51
They will hit you, call your names, they will do many of
20:55
things to try to stop you from helping them because they don't
20:58
trust people easily. So showing up, showing up is the
21:04
first step. Continue even when they tell you
21:08
I don't want you here. You can step back and then come
21:11
back again with a different approach or with a different
21:16
strategy. And as they continue to see that
21:19
they can't push you away like you accept them however they
21:23
come, whether if they're happy, whether they're good, whether
21:26
they're bad, whether they're showing you, you accept all of
21:29
that. That helps them trust you and
21:31
know that you're going to stick around.
21:33
And then when you get past that really difficult time, you can
21:38
really, really hone into your relationship with that young
21:41
person to help them. Because if they don't trust you,
21:44
they're not going to listen to you.
21:46
If they don't trust you, they're not going to believe that we're
21:48
telling them is valuable. I've supported young people who
21:53
have had very difficult situations.
21:56
I've even been a witness for the police in a sexual assault case.
22:02
That was a really difficult thing for me to do for that
22:04
young person. I was the first adult that she
22:08
said. What happened was to me, so that
22:10
was. What makes because you run a
22:12
lots of different youth programs with your company and is it
22:16
Elevate Youth Lab, is that, is that what you run?
22:19
Yeah, yes. What's the difference from other
22:22
programs in the sector? They elevate Youth Lab.
22:24
It's a model, not just a program.
22:27
It's a capacity building model that is meant to be a wrap
22:31
around service to support parents, carers and guardians of
22:34
youth of young people with disabilities and terminal
22:36
backgrounds. So the Elevate Youth Lab has a
22:39
few faces. It has the face that faces the
22:42
young person, which is how we support the young person.
22:47
He has the face of the training for the mentor and he has the
22:50
face of the training for the parents.
22:52
He has the face of collaboration with allied health.
22:56
One thing that a lot of people don't do is they don't want to
22:59
collaborate or they don't think it's necessary to collaborate.
23:03
But I have experienced first hand how we can help the young
23:06
people progress, like really progress when we work alongside
23:09
with all these. For example, I believe a lot, I
23:14
have a lot of faith in the work of the occupational therapists.
23:17
And we have, I have supported young people in their home
23:20
settings to implement the OT plans and the day-to-day lives.
23:24
And that is beautiful because they can do a lot of progress.
23:28
Same with they having, for example, speech pathology.
23:31
But then they need to come home and we need to continue
23:35
prompting. Like if they're learning how to
23:36
do the sentences, full sentences, when they come and
23:40
say me hungry, we are there and we're like, I am hungry.
23:45
They look at you, they repeat back.
23:48
If you do only one hour a week or a fortnight or a month in the
23:53
clinical space, you don't, you don't, you don't put in your
23:57
reps. And for the young people to
23:59
progress and actually see change, they need to put in the
24:02
reps. So that is what we do.
24:05
We support the plans, the clinical plans in the day-to-day
24:09
life. So what is different?
24:12
We're intentional about a lot of things.
24:14
It's not just I'm a cool, I'm a cool, I'm a cool lady, I'm going
24:19
to come and we're going to hang out.
24:20
We're going to go to the cinemas and you're going to like me
24:22
because I'm cool. No, I'm coming and everything
24:26
that I'm doing is intentional. Everything has a purpose.
24:30
How we relate is strong informed, is theory based, the
24:35
language that we use, the approaches that we take, like
24:40
it's not only let's go to the shops and buy some food.
24:43
No, is that we have a plan. If there is a goal and the goal
24:47
is learn how to do my shopping independently.
24:50
We prepare for the goal. We break it into what we need to
24:53
learn to successfully do my shopping by myself later on in
24:58
two years or when I turn 18. So we break all of that.
25:02
What does that look like? What do you like to eat, for
25:04
example? I like to eat, you know, we make
25:07
a list that is a skill that they're learning for the for
25:11
when they become adults, how to budget.
25:14
We go to the shop tool. We're looking at the prices you
25:17
are doing your shopping, you're putting your things in the cart
25:19
with your list. And then if you have a budget,
25:21
how do you work out your budget? So it's intentional, it's
25:26
planned out. And what I have the most faith
25:29
about is the fact that I am building systems so the work can
25:34
be replicated and scaled without limit.
25:37
So my goal, my ultimate goal is that my model can be licensed
25:45
and global because as youth workers, the trainings we
25:49
receive to support young people, none of them are Australia
25:53
based. They all come from the UK or
25:56
they come from the United States.
25:58
That's the training that we receive.
26:00
Why is there no training designed by Australians?
26:03
So I saw that lack, that really big gap and I was like, why are
26:08
we not doing this? And then I went and I put my
26:11
research hat on and I started doing my research, implementing
26:16
my scientific method that I learned when I went to uni.
26:20
And I've been doing what it's called reverse engine each
26:25
practical research. So I had the practice, I
26:31
condensed my 8 years of experience and I started reverse
26:36
reversing it to explain it with theory that has been proved for
26:40
50 more years. And now what the stages that
26:44
we're this point is collecting data, implementing the system so
26:49
we can see what works, what needs improvements, so we can
26:53
perfect the model and we can then replicate it, continue
26:56
training the mentors, parents, carers, whoever is going for
27:01
young people. How do you get the support
27:04
workers on board with you to have the same mindset as you?
27:08
Like, how do you get them on board to really Dave dive?
27:11
Because I could. There's been times that I've set
27:13
something out and then they deviate from the plan.
27:19
Look at this stage, I am looking to hire some people.
27:24
Well, I the the highest that I have are very close in my
27:29
network, so I know they have similar values.
27:32
So when I stepped into, OK, I'm going to do this business, I had
27:35
these people already that I was like, OK, this is the people
27:37
that I want and they're the ones that I have now.
27:40
But now I'm looking to increment, looking to increase
27:44
to hire some people. Well, then I came up with an
27:46
idea like how can I get them to do a buy in, like not only come
27:51
and do support work because it doesn't work like that.
27:53
I need to give them a buy in so they can invest themselves in
27:57
the business just like I am investing in them.
28:00
So I prepared like a little pitch.
28:03
So how I'm going to get the support workers on board?
28:10
So I'm offering a few things that I think are important as a
28:13
support worker. What I want at this stage is to
28:19
advertise matching. So let's say a support worker
28:23
wants to join. We're going to promote that
28:26
support worker based on the skill set, likes and dislikes.
28:31
We're going to promote her in her look, promote them in the
28:33
local areas so we can find participants for them that align
28:39
with their own values, lives and these lives strengths as well.
28:44
And they're going to be close to homes.
28:46
In my opinion, if I was a support worker at this stage
28:50
looking for a job, those would be the kind of things that I
28:54
would look at. I want to be close to home.
28:56
I want to be working with somebody that I'm going to enjoy
28:58
working in. My boss is going to be cool, but
29:00
I already have that one ticked. I am a cool boss.
29:02
So what is what I am right now? Because I do need to bring in
29:07
people in. And you're 100% right.
29:10
You see support workers that do not like to do support, but then
29:14
if they don't like support work, they can't be working with me
29:17
because it doesn't adapt. With them, they'll start off
29:21
well and we've got a plan and we're all on board.
29:25
But somewhere in between the plan and all being on board,
29:28
there's a deviation. And I don't know whether it's
29:31
because there's boredom of the like.
29:33
I think there's a couple of reasons.
29:34
I've the plan that I've got is not working for the person we
29:37
serve. There's boredom in the plan of
29:38
delivering it, like the living maybe Groundhog Day or something
29:41
like that. Or it could be that they're just
29:44
not that interested in the work that they do.
29:46
I'm sure there's a much more other explanations for it, but
29:50
doesn't it does kill me a little when we deviate, especially when
29:54
we put so much work into it to begin with and then the
29:57
deviation kills it, yes. So still we're in.
30:01
To, I don't know, I haven't had those, those type of
30:05
experiences. I'm sure you've had plenty.
30:07
Like, you know, I'm in the early stages of the business, so I
30:11
haven't actively hired yet. I'm looking at it right now.
30:15
What I do know a lot of people, Sarah.
30:17
So it's like, OK, I'll get this person that I knew from that
30:20
job, I'll get them to work with because I've already worked with
30:22
them. I already know them.
30:25
And I can tell a good support worker from miles away you smell
30:29
them from a fire. Like that's a good super worker.
30:32
So I, I feel like I have a good instinct when it comes to that.
30:36
So let's see if I have a good instinct where I have to hire 10
30:38
mentors too. So wait a see.
30:41
We'll. Have to be like a life update a
30:44
year from now when you've hired your first couple of support
30:46
workers. I, I came up with the idea of,
30:52
OK, let's do this. And we, because if we promote
30:55
their support worker, not my business going to advertise the
30:59
Super worker, these super workers ready to serve a radius
31:03
of 10 kilometers. So if the participant comes,
31:06
it's going to be a participant that will want to work with that
31:09
person because they already saw their face.
31:11
They already saw what they're into, already saw what their
31:14
likes and dislikes are. So the person is going to come
31:17
with a super worker in mind. So I'm going to start promoting
31:20
my super workers because they're awesome.
31:22
You know what I mean? So I feel like that is a good
31:26
way of hooking them if they can work with people that they like.
31:29
Because I can tell you that I stayed in jobs that I did not
31:32
like. I stayed longer because of the
31:36
participants that I was supporting.
31:38
What? Has been your proudest moment.
31:41
Sorry, my proudest moment. I would say, having so many
31:46
people, high up, people thinking that what I'm doing can be great
31:52
because people that I consider admirable have told me, how do
31:58
you come up with that? And I just did.
32:00
And then when I came up with the idea and I started doing
32:03
research and I was like, wait, nobody's doing this.
32:07
Not a soul has thought of this. And that alone was like, am I
32:15
being delusional? And it's something that cannot
32:17
be done? But a lot of geniuses have been
32:19
delusional in their time, So what makes me different to them?
32:24
I feel like all business owners are a little bit delusional.
32:28
You have to be, otherwise you don't get into business.
32:32
The hardest part is explaining something to somebody and
32:35
they're never going to get it. Like that's not for them, their
32:38
mindsets not that way to to think that way.
32:42
So if you're not a little bit delusional, you'd never really
32:44
have a business. So I think.
32:47
I mean, I think I'm a lot delusional, not just a little
32:50
bit because I did, I did a bit of a rundown of the numbers and
32:55
I realized like my, my North Star, the number that I came up
33:01
with and it actually was quite impressive is that I can reach
33:05
300,000 young people in 50 years.
33:09
But from now say that again until before I could reach
33:14
300,000 young people, 50 years, if I can make elevate your life
33:21
work in 50 years. I'm not talking pray today.
33:25
I'm talking how the the model can support 300,000 young people
33:32
in a span of 50 years. Not going to be me personally.
33:35
Or if we start training mentors and then those mentors go on and
33:41
support young people indirectly, they don't have to continue to
33:45
be working with me, the mentors, but they go on to another job
33:48
and they can still have that training that mentor had when
33:52
they were working with me. So my idea could reach and hand
33:58
300,000 kids in 15 years well. You've already answered that
34:01
question. When do you see yourself in five
34:04
years? What kind of team culture do you
34:06
hope to build behind the scenes? I was actually having a
34:09
conversation with a organizational psychologist
34:12
today about that, about that specific topic, because I was I
34:19
had workplaces that were quite toxic and I learned what not to
34:23
do if you want to keep people happy.
34:26
I have learned what not to do, and I feel like that gives me an
34:30
edge because I already know what I would want to have in my
34:35
workplace as a support worker or as a youth worker.
34:39
You don't want a boss that's only seeing you for the job that
34:42
you can, for the work that you can do for them.
34:45
You want a boss as supportive. You want a boss that can check
34:47
in on you. You want a boss that celebrates
34:50
you. Because the worst thing and the
34:53
most sole devastating thing that we do, we have in our workplaces
34:58
that we spend months, years supporting a young person or an
35:04
arrow. Nobody tells you anything.
35:08
Or the day that one thing goes wrong, that is the day that
35:13
everyone in the organization is hitting your line, but they
35:16
never picked up their phone to call you an accident and tell
35:19
you, hey, yes, you did amazing last month.
35:23
You didn't have an incident. Nobody.
35:26
Does I agree 100% because kindness really doesn't cost
35:30
anything and telling somebody they do a good job really is
35:34
less than a 2 minute conversation.
35:35
The fact that you can only have a have a conversation when
35:39
there's a problem or a bump in the road.
35:42
Yeah, I, I, I always find that wild because I think if you
35:45
treat the support worker really good, they go about and treat
35:49
the person we serve even better. It's I'm not mathematical.
35:54
I don't need to do any research on it.
35:55
I've seen it multiple times. The more respected or valued a
35:59
support worker comes along, everything else aligns.
36:03
It's easier. Yeah.
36:04
The people we serve, we that's what we want, isn't?
36:06
It when you were when you were a support worker, Sarah, What do
36:11
you want from your boss? Me.
36:14
You want that mental value. What did I want from my boss?
36:17
I just, I think for me, it was always, I always wanted to learn
36:21
and I think that that's one of my biggest things is I wanted to
36:24
learn as much as I could and to go to as much training as I
36:27
could and just sink my teeth into much of experience that I
36:31
could. That's what I really wanted from
36:33
my boss as a support worker. Did I know it was going to end
36:35
up where I am today? Absolutely not.
36:37
Was it important to me back then?
36:39
Absolutely. Because I wanted to learn how
36:42
to, you know, DSP later situation.
36:44
I want to know how to, if there was a medical concern, how I
36:48
could dive in and just, you know, be as present as a support
36:52
worker as possible. But I suppose we have support
36:55
workers, they're leading by example.
36:58
So it's making sure I think even as us as leaders that we do our
37:01
self check insurance and we lead by example.
37:05
Yeah, there's more special and valuable things the boss has
37:12
done for me in the past has been free.
37:14
A call a check in doesn't cost anybody any money.
37:19
So yeah. It's true.
37:23
The look, the NDS have made it harder.
37:26
Like don't get me wrong, it's harder to get training as a
37:28
support worker than ever before. Before the NDIS, we didn't have
37:31
to wait for somebody's plan to come in to go get training.
37:34
You got the training because that was required of the
37:36
organization that you work for. So it was.
37:38
So as organizations with such, you know, minimal margins,
37:42
training isn't always the number one priority, which is sad, but
37:47
I get it. But there's got to be better
37:50
than what we've got currently. I feel like there has to be a
37:52
change, like there's been so many changes with the NDIS that
37:56
it's not going to be. I know the reason behind it.
38:00
They need to cut costs. They've gone wild overboard
38:04
expectations of the expense and the growth rate of the NDIS
38:09
expenses. Like it's all understandable,
38:12
but at the same time, you cannot go about it with less than the
38:19
pay that needs to be done. So definitely something's got to
38:23
change, something's got to give. I don't know what's going to
38:25
give people something up again. So you know what?
38:30
Oh my God, you know what I haven't done in this podcast so
38:32
far and realize I haven't asked you where in Australia are you
38:37
situated? You're in Sydney and do you
38:40
cater for like the city of Sydney or out of Sydney?
38:45
Are you location based? Yes.
38:48
So I, I'm in the southwest Sydney, I'm in Liverpool and my
38:52
catchment areas are southwest and western Sydney.
38:55
So from Blacktown to Paris all the way down to about in a
38:58
Redlands. So it's I made like a radius of
39:01
where I can reach. But obviously as I start getting
39:06
more mentors, I'll see which areas I can have like a little
39:10
cluster that I can train the workers around.
39:13
Today, like I said, I want to promote the worker like this is
39:17
the person that you're going to get so we can get them work
39:20
around their own area. So that's kind of like how I
39:22
want to do it moving forward. But at this point, we're in
39:25
southwest Liverpool and surroundings, yeah.
39:30
So if anybody listening to the podcast wanted to reach out to
39:34
you, is it better by website, e-mail, LinkedIn?
39:38
How's the best way to get into your vicinity?
39:43
I'm pretty active on LinkedIn and on my e-mail weekdays I
39:48
reply to my emails at least every 48 hours.
39:51
So if somebody wanted to reach me, I feel like the best way
39:55
would be an e-mail because it always has the urgency.
39:59
So my e-mail is info@supportingcommunitiesaustralia.com
40:03
and I'm always on the other end of the e-mail.
40:06
I don't have a VA or anybody answering so it's.
40:09
Always me, it is I. I but I'm going to reply to
40:12
everything. Also, LinkedIn is a platform
40:16
that I'm active almost every day.
40:19
Not all day every day, but almost every day.
40:23
So at least I will reply every day or every second day if I get
40:28
a message through LinkedIn. Is there any questions that I
40:32
haven't asked you or talked about on this podcast that I
40:35
need to bring up before we? I don't know.
40:39
You've done very well. Thank you so much for having me
40:43
as as you. Thank you.
40:44
Thank you.