Staff matters January 25, 2018 - Issue 137 Week 27
Lettuce Celebrate - Planting Healthy Goals
In This Issue 1 Lettuce Celebrate -
Planting Healthy Goals
2 Staff Profile Canley Vale Club Afford Holiday Supports
3 A Step In The Right Direction
Residents of our Group Homes are working towards providing opportunities for healthy menu choice selection and are looking at ways to encourage healthy living. Staff and residents worked together to plan out their goals and decide what they wanted to achieve. The main goals were to make healthy lifestyle choices, reduce in their waist lines and improve their health and fitness. Each of the homes purchased portable veggie garden beds and residents, with the support of Afford Lifestyle Assistants, residents have put them together.
4 Sewing Is Harder Than It Seams
Selfie Of the Week Have a Laugh
Jodie, Donna, Kim from Sunshine and John, Susie, Paul and Daniel from the Panthers house all had a great time working together to create their new gardens. Developing, nurturing and harvesting the veggie garden is a long-term project, which all residents can enjoy being involved in and can take ownership of the upkeep and maintenance of the garden. Residents have already had turns getting their hands dirty and learning about planting and harvesting the seedlings. The project also enables residents to learn about taking ownership and making sure that seedlings and plants are growing and being watered on a daily basis. The residents selected a variety of fruit and vegetables to grow including; tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, onions, cucumbers, corn, carrots, capsicum, peas, and beetroot. Good luck and we look forward to seeing all the wonderful fruit and vegetables harvested and cooked into delicious healthy meals!
Let your abilities soar www.afford.com.au
Reminder Don’t forget to send your/clients’ achievements, good news stories and photos to CELEBRATE@afford.com.au
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January 25, 2018 - Issue 137
Staff Profile
Canley Vale Club Afford Holiday Supports During the school holidays, Afford launched and ran a holiday support programme for all school aged clients. Some familiar faces and some new joined the holiday program; all full of life and lots of energy! They all brought with them a sense of energy, fun and laughter as they joined staff to enjoy activities at Canley Vale Lifestyle Centre.
Kerry Ryce Lifestyle Assistant Cherrywood LC Favourite Song: Working Class Man Favourite Movie: Steel Magnolias Favourite Hobbies: Gardening Favourite Foods: Anything sweet If you could be an animal what would you be: A cat What is your dream holiday destination: Hawaii If you had the power what would you change about the world: No human suffering. What is the nicest thing someone has ever done for you: Wiped my upset face. If you had to teach something what would you teach: Medical profession how to relate to people with disabilities. Something no one knows about me: I wear nana undies.
Lifestyle Assistants at Canley Vale were so happy to support these young go-getters and ‘channelled their inner child’ by taking part in lots of fun and frivolity! Afford is pleased to be able to provide this valuable service for our clients and their families. New programs for school aged children are a valuable addition to Afford’s offering, to support even more families, carers and clients.
Kirk Working Hard At Coles Kirk is a client of Belmore Lifestyle Centre who came to Afford with the ultimate goal of one day finding his dream job and securing long term employment. He started work experience with Coles at Clempton Park in December 2017 and now works once a week from 9am till 2.30pm and receives one-to-one support. Kirk arrives at Belmore Lifestyle Centre at 8.30am and then catches the bus to Coles with staff support. Kirk arrives at Coles smiling and ready to tackle the day. Kirk’s jobs include front facing the shelves and arranging customer returns. With travel training and employment support, Kirk is slowing building his confidence to travel independently to work experience each week. Well done, Kirk! We look forward to hearing how you progress with achieving your goals.
let your abilities soar
www.afford.com.au
Staff matters
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January 25, 2018 - Issue 137
A Step In The Right Direction Ray is a client of Afford’s Minchinbury Australian Disability Enterprise (ADE) who recently transferred from another service. Ray’s mum says that it has been the best move they have made for her son. She reveals that it was previously an uphill battle to get Ray up out of bed in the morning to go to work, but since moving to Afford, Ray wakes up and eagerly tells her that it is time for work! Ray looks forward to coming to Afford every day and loves and appreciates the support he receives. It is going so well that both Ray and his mother are open to trialling an additional day of work starting this February. “I would like to thank the Minchinbury ADE Team for all they have done for Ray. He is so happy, he is like a new person. Thank you for all you have done,” Ray’s mother. Ray is thankful for his job at Minchinbury and loves the new friends he has made. He says that he feels so lucky and is eager to add his extra day of work. Afford has recently refreshed, re-energised and re-imagined their ADEs which has provided greater incentives and opportunities for supported employees to work on their strengths, develop their skills, and incorporate work that suits their interests. We’re pleased to be able to be a partner for every supported employee to ensure they are able to let their abilities soar!
let your abilities soar
www.afford.com.au
Staff matters
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January 25, 2018 - Issue 137
Sewing Is Harder Than It Seams Kylie Sorby is a Lifestyle Assistant at Afford’s Group Homes, Panthers and Sunshine. Kylie identified that residents showed some interest in sewing, so she arranged for the purchase of a new sewing machine to start weekly classes to support residents learn and develop their sewing skills. For those who are completely new to sewing, Kylie will start with simple, easy to sew activities such as napkins, placemats, tablecloths. As residents enhance their skills, projects will progress into bigger and better things. The first project will be the creation of new curtains for residents’ homes. Hemming, ironing, pinning and sewing will all be learnt by residents. Residents joined Kylie for a trip out to Spotlight where they chose material that they would like in their houses. To begin, the curtains will be made for the front windows that face the street, providing residents with greater privacy but still having the benefit of looking out. This will be in both front lounge rooms and also for one resident’s, Jodie’s, bedroom window which faces the street. In addition, the office for the Lifestyle Assistants will also have new curtains made; all by residents as part of the new sewing class. Both residents and staff are very excited and happy to get started and can’t wait to share the amazing results of the sewing class.
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Have a laugh
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In the Selfie Above: Lifestyle Assistant, Kylie Billingsley sharing how much her dog Thunder loves Afford!
let your abilities soar www.afford.com.au
Please send in your selfies or laughs