THE chance to do paid work at the recent Bathurst Winter Festival was life-changing for two clients of a local community services organisation.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
LiveBetter approached Bathurst Regional Council this year about volunteer opportunities at the festival - which was held in July - so the organisation’s customers could learn work skills.
According to LiveBetter community access manager Michelle Stark, council didn’t offer volunteer opportunities, but something far better: paid employment.
READ MORE: Festival hosts second Accessibility Day
READ MORE: Visitors enjoy Bathurst Winter Festival
Ms Stark said LiveBetter runs programs for adults living in the community who have disabilities and one of those programs is vocational.
Program participants get help to “develop personal skills and work skills - things that come naturally for us, but which other people need a little bit of extra help to develop”.
Two of the vocational program participants took up the opportunity to work at the festival and did four hours each day during the event, Ms Stark said.
“Both have volunteered for many years, but we have never been successful in finding them paid employment,” she said.
Some of their volunteer work, she said, had been quite mundane jobs, but this time they were “paid to do work in what was a fun and exciting environment”.
The two women sold tickets, helped hand out ice-skates and ice-skating aids and cleaned up the ice rink during the festival.
And their verdict on the experience?
”It was wonderful. They loved it,” Ms Stark said.
For the first few days, LiveBetter sent a support worker with the women, but it was soon obvious that they were “more than capable and more than comfortable in doing it on their own”.
Ms Stark said council was “100 per cent supportive” of the women, as were their fellow employees at the festival, who ensured they could try different tasks.
“And both girls were over the moon when they got their first pay cheque at the end of the fortnight,” Ms Stark said.
She said there was a growing emphasis, as funding for disability services had changed, on having people with a disability engage with the community.
She said it could be hard for LiveBetter to convince companies to give people with a disability a chance and “to see what these guys can bring”.
While you’re here
You can now receive online headlines from the Western Advocate delivered straight to your inbox at 6am six days a week. To make sure you’re up-to-date with all news across the Bathurst region, sign up here.