Staff matters 151

Staff matters May 4, 2018 - Issue 151 Week 44

Goals Soar High at the Special Olympics

In This Issue 1 Goals Soar High at the Special Olympics

2 Staff Profile Mowing Crew Motor On Networking at the Small Business Awards

3 Goals Soar High at the Special Olympics

4 Gallery Visit Encourages Above: Tony and Charmaine achieved their goals at the Special Olympics; and their array of medals from the Games At Afford, we want to support our clients to unlock their potential and let their abilities soar.

Through a range of engaging programs, individualised disability supports and a supportive community of staff, friends and peers to encourage individuals along the way, we are so proud to be part of the journey of some of our talented clients who recently competed at the Special Olympics Australia National Games in Adelaide from 16 to 18 April.

In celebration of such amazing spirit and will to succeed, we are pleased to share some of the wonderful achievements of our clients who attended the Games and congratulate them on successfully achieving their personal and life goals.

Charmaine and Tony Bag Gold With such strong dedication and perseverance, Charmaine Ward, from Afford’s Ingleburn Australian Disability Enterprise (ADE), and Tony Ward from Afford’s Minto factory achieved amazing success at the recent Special Olympics National Games in Adelaide, competing in Bocce.

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Let your abilities soar www.afford.com.au

Art Appreciation

Selfie Of the Week Have a Laugh

Reminder Don’t forget to send your/clients’ achievements, good news stories and photos to CELEBRATE@afford.com.au

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May 4, 2018 - Issue 151

Staff Profile

Jacky Issa Lifestyle Assistant at Bexley Lifestyle Centre Favourite Song: Titanic (Celine Dion) Favourite Movie: Beauty and the Beast Favourite Hobbies: Drawing Foods: Rice and chicken If you could be an animal what would you be: Cat What is your dream holiday destination: France If you had the power what would you change about the world: Provide assistance to the poor countries What is the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?

Loyalty If you had to teach something what would you teach: Honesty

Mowing Crew Motor On Afford’s Mowing Crew are committed to delivering the highest quality service for the jobs they undertake.

Last week was no different, with the team from the Mowing Crew given the task to clean the streets of Ambarvale in preparation for a Pop-Up Maintenance Workshop in the Macarthur Area.

The Mowing Crew team go to work to mow and clean the streets and, by the end of Tuesday last week, everything was neat and tidy. After the ANZAC Day break on Wednesday, the crew returned to do another quick clean up so that all was ready for the Pop-Up event on Thursday.

The purpose of the Pop-Up Maintenance Workshop was to provide local Department of Housing tenants with the chance to meet the various tradesmen and crews, ask questions and have some special requests attended to on the day. On the day of the event, seven skip bins were used for the removal of rubbish and were filled to overflowing by the end of the day. This work was heavy and most unpleasant, but Afford’s Mowing Crew team of men, under the direction and supervision of Lake Maintenance, achieved the lofty goal of cleaning the whole town to a standard that didn’t go un noticed by the Department of Housing and the organisers of the event.

Congratulations Mowing Crew! We are all so proud of all your efforts!

Networking at the Small Business Awards On 21 April, Afford District Managers and Team Leaders were invited to the Small Business Awards at Star City Casino in Sydney.

With over 1,500 people in attendance, Afford was nominated in the Professional Services category.

Unfortunately, Afford missed out on taking home the win, but gracefully accepted defeat to Happiness Co, which is a mental health service which focuses on suicide prevention in adults.

Apart from the award announcements, the night was a wonderful opportunity to network with others from within the disability sector as well as those from other industries. It was a great opportunity to also build relationships with Something no one knows about multiple business who are also navigating through the NDIS, learn more about me? potential sponsorship options and build community networks.

I am strong The evening, complete with a three course meal, drinks and first-class entertainment, was a chance for the team to celebrate the amazing day to day work of Afford staff and energise the team to strive for the win next year.

let your abilities soar

www.afford.com.au

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May 4, 2018 - Issue 151

Goals Soar High at the Special Olympics - continued from page 1 The husband and wife team really shone at the Games by securing themselves Gold medals each!

It was not an easy journey for Charmaine. Her super strong dedication to adhere to a strict, regimented routine of attending every training session, regular swimming, losing 15kg and over 5cms off her waist, really paid off in the end with Charmaine achieving her massive personal goal of winning at the Games.

At the Games, Charmaine won a Gold medal in the singles, a Silver medal in the doubles and a Gold medal in the teams. Tony won a Gold medal in the singles, a Bronze in the doubles and a Silver in the teams.

They were able to meet and swap pins with those from other states and made loads of friends along the way. Charmaine said that it was a great honour for both of them to represent the State of NSW. Graeme and Conner Bowl Over Their Goals The personal goals set by Graeme Donnely and Conner Butt were beyond extraordinary and ambitious. But these two determined bowling champs not only met, but exceeded their goals of representing NSW in Bowling at the Special Olympics National Games in Adelaide last month.

Their dedication to training and will to succeed resulted in Graeme achieving a Silver medal and Conner placing 5th and 6th in different bowling competitions.

Graeme and Conner returned elated to the other trainees at Prestons and were proud and eager to share their adventures with the rest of the group.

They showed everyone their medals and spoke about the challenges of flying to Adelaide and the excitement they felt on achieving their goals at the games.

Graeme and Conner are already planning their road to success for the next Special Olympics. They spoke very positively about the different competitions that they need to attend and the training that will be required to be able to compete well.

While trainees often speak about the importance of setting goals, having a fellow trainee speak about how all their hard work has paid off, brings in the reality with others that “you can achieve your goals”.

Aaron Swims to Success Aaron Martin is a client at Afford Jamisontown Lifestyle Centre who loves track and field sports and enjoys the thrill of competition.

His passion for athletics has seen Aaron already compete in Special Olympics National Games in Newcastle and Melbourne, and taking part in the Adelaide Special Olympics National Games was yet another goal of his to achieve.

Aaron’s results were amazing! He competed in four events and achieved 4th place in the 100m run, 4th place in Javelin, and Bronze medals in Long Jump and Shot Put. His cheer squad at Jamisontown Lifestyle Centre were so pleased to find out about Aaron’s achievements.

let your abilities soar

www.afford.com.au

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May 4, 2018 - Issue 151

Gallery Visit Encourages Art Appreciation Recently, the trainees from Prestons SLES Program visited the Art Gallery of NSW to take part in ‘Appreciating Art’ which is a follow-up from a session on ‘What is Appreciation’.

The purpose of the visit was to provide trainees with the opportunity to explore their ability to appreciate things; build on their ability to travel on public transport independently; and to see firsthand, from an Art Gallery employee, what it is like to work in an Art Gallery.

During this session, trainees explored the idea that you don’t have to like something in order to appreciate it. This can be people, ideas or pieces of art. It takes time and a little understanding to help you appreciate something or someone.

The trainees took part in a tour of the Art Express art exhibition at the Gallery of NSW. The tour guide encouraged the trainees to think and talk about what went into producing the pieces of art they viewed.

As a result, the trainees gained a better understanding of what it means to appreciate something, which in this case, was a piece of art.

During a review of the visit, the trainees spoke about how they began to appreciate the work of the art pieces and even grew to like the art pieces that they sometimes didn’t like at first glance.

Some of the trainees are now looking at ways that they can volunteer at one of their local art galleries as a result of the positive conversation with the Art Gallery employee.

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Have a laugh

S the of

Afford Supported Employee, Akash Shah, on graduation day

let your abilities soar www.afford.com.au

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