I am off to Broken Hill, which is great because I love the place, my team are doing a great job in the town and our QA audit gives us a chance to confirm that local job seekers are receiving great service.
It’s also a shame because it delays my opportunity to catch up with Stephen Pocklington, Director and lead facilitator at "Well, Beyond Recovery" and Frank Bristol (Balance NZ) who are in Sydney to lead a 5 day WRAP facilitators training program at our St Mary’s outlet
What’s WRAP?
Wellness Recovery Action Planning (google it) a program that dovetails nicely with the work that NOVA does and is proving to be a first class support for our job seekers that have experienced mental illness.
WRAP has 5 core concepts and these are:
Hope
Personal responsibility
Education
Self-advocacy &
Support
NOVA has been interested in developing our capacity to assist those job seekers that have mental health problems for some considerable time and WRAP training (we will have 30+ trained facilitators by the end of this week) is seen as an important adjunct to our development of this service.
Approximately 400 job seekers are presently registered with us that identify in this category and, while that’s a small number, we feel this is an area that our staff require better tools and training and our job seekers could use additional options.
On the subject of Psychiatric Disability and Supported Employment I can’t help but think back to 1993/4(?) when NOVA staff members Racheal Neal and Julie Mayor team in eth development of an innovative and highly successful program that found work for 15 people (all of whom had a diagnosis of Schizophrenia or Bi-Polar disorder). At the end of 12 months not 1 person had lost their employment and all reported significant improvement in their symptoms and self-esteem.
A brilliant program?
Absolutely, and that why the morons that fund these things decided to can our attempt and insisted we refer the then job seekers to a work crew that was being set up locally as these staff, ‘had more experience’ !
Well, that’s in the past. Today is Independence Day and now we have a large self-funding program that can experiment, develop and grow based on our own experience and best practice taken from around the globe.
That’s why we have WRAP and that’s why we are sending staff overseas and inviting international and local experts in the field to join us in Sydney. We want to develop the teams capacity to provide effective help and we want to go beeyond that to create an industry leading example of best practice that we can then share in the same fashion we always have.
July 2010 is probably the most exciting and busy month in the organizations history and, to support these developments the whole team is also attempting to make July the month for our best placements ever.
I am really looking forward to sharing the events we have planned with you and very excited about our growth and skills development projects.
Would you like a face-to-face meeting with Martin via Skype? Click the button below to make an appointment
Subscribe to this Blog - blog.novaemployment.com.au Copy the link above and paste it into your favourite Reader to subscribe to an RSS feed of this blog. To watch a short video explanation of RSS and how it helps you save time reading the web click here
Your Comments There are currently no comments on this article
Previous Posts
Benchmarks To access NOVA Employment or any Disability Employment Service (DES), almost everyone is required to be assessed by the Services Australia Services (Centrelink) to determine their "Benchmark" hours: Benchmark hours are the pay point for service providers; being the minimum working hours required for the DES provider to bill the Government and the assessed maximum hours a person is deemed capable of working with DES support....
International Day of People with a Disability
International Day of People with a Disability
It's IDPwD and we have a 1 hour 'special' screening on SBS from 4.30 this afternoon.
Our Ryan Goodwin has done a great job of selecting some of the great entries from NOVA's 'Focusonability' short film festival - we love the Festival and hope that you'll love these films, gathered from around the world....
2020 - the first half When the going gets tough, the tough get going
Good! - Now they've left us, let's look at reality - when the going gets tough, many people suffer and dis-proportionally, people with disability suffer more....
Countdown Clock II
What's the countdown clock all about?
It's our closing time and a countdown to the end of a truly remarkable month of extraordinary effort by my staff....
Countdown Clock Regular viewers will have noticed a countdown clock ticking away (above)
What's that all about?
Can't say - you have to wait till 4.30pm (a little earlier for staff)
...
Just the best 3 One thing we all love is a winner which is why there's a smile on my face it will be pretty hard to shift.
There's a nightmare pandemic sweeping the world (carried off my mum), the economy has tanked in a never before seen disaster that's left more than a million Aussies unemployed and the only news seems to be bad news....
More than Money!
If asked, most of us would say we went to work for the money, to pay our bills or support our family.
All true, and yet work means so much more:
Prior to finding a job with NOVA employment Glenn* struggled to keep jobs for more than a few months and was generally working as a dishwasher in restaurants which he found to be quite unsatisfying work....
Life Changers II
How are you in the mornings (or evenings, or nights)? NOVA is an 'old school' Disability Employment Service - we find work in the general community with identical pay and conditions as those enjoyed by people who dont have a disability....
Life Changers Required! Received yesterday:
I was unemployed for 24 years because of my disability. I was looking for a job for the last 2 and half years. With the help of (NOVA Staff) I found suitable job and working in the law company for last one year....
Try us!
Don't know about you but I have felt pretty bruised from all the horrible stuff brought upon us by this damn virus - seeing so many folk losing their jobs is particularly awful and the uncertainty generated for everyone, particularly for workers who have a disability is dreadful to see....
Best Ever II
Following from last post:
NOVA Employment has operated for 30 years. Comparing all results from previous years, February 2020 has been our most successful to date - Following on from January that's 2 in a row and every indication March will also be a record breaker....
Best Ever
NOVA Employment posted another 'best ever' result for the first month of 2020.
Despite the most dreadful natural disasters and with many businesses closed for the holidays, the NOVA team delivered more new workers than in any previous January results, beating past 5 years average by 25% and previous (2017) 'best ever' numbers by 5%....
Depressing cracked record!
A good friend will occasionally pull me up with the reminder that I have a tendency to rant, 'rave on slop jaw' if I remember correctly....
Big Win! Saturday night saw a big win for the NOVA team and for people with disability when our Podcast partners NOVA Entertainment- no relationship other than mates - received the following:
BEST ORIGINAL PODCAST - BRANDED
Focus On Ability; Nova Employment & the Nova Entertainment Podcast Team , NOVA Entertainment
BEST ORIGINAL PODCAST - UNBRANDED
Hamish & Andy; Hamish Blake & Andy Lee, PodcastOne Australi
Taken from the web: https://www....
Good Result!
Received the following yesterday morning:
Hi Nova, just wanted to give my feedback in regards to my mother getting a job through you guys and the amazing impact it has had!! The job that mum has received has changed her outlook on everything! She is now much more confident in her self and her abilities....
Welfare Benefits and Health
It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's truer that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power: David Brin
DES providers don't need nor should they have been given the authority to suspend welfare benefits (see above)....
Disgusting!
Disgusting!: https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2019/07/ndis-data-drop-reveals-severe-employment-gaps/
I have spoken previously on, to quote former President Bush, 'the soft bigotry of low expectations' - if you are a member of a marginalised group the public don't expect much and are surprised when anything much is achieved!
I've been in this game for more than 30 years and have been privileged to see literally thousands of terrific men and women leave NOVA To gain (and retain) great jobs....
Goodness me!
Goodness me!
Read this article: https://www.smh.com.au/national/no-lights-no-linen-how-alex-survived-for-six-years-on-newstart-20190717-p5284q....
Changing Attitudes
One of the hardest things to do is change a person's attitude - if they are favourably disposed to you, all's well and good - if someone holds a contrary view it's an uphill battle to change a mindset....
Retention Retention, Retention!
Just when you thought things couldn't get any better, something comes along that causes you to stop and to reconsider the way your business is conducted....
Subscribe to this Blog