APM ParentsNext Naomi's story transcript

Naomi Dekaste: My name's Naomi Dekaste. I have four children, two boys, two girls. I've been in the Parents/Next program for 12 months. And I have loved every minute of it.

I was actually quite nervous to come in to see Belinda. Obviously, I haven't done anything like this before. Never been with a job provider or anything in my whole life. So when I come in to see Belinda, she asked a few questions and I'm like, I'm too old to do any of this stuff. But she was quite supportive and put me onto a program for Cert IV with Warner Institute. I've completed it in July and started working.

To anyone that does come in, accept every bit of help and advice that Belinda gives and jump into everything that comes at you. You'll get a job out of it eventually.

Belinda definitely supported all the way through, so it was fantastic. Without her, I don't think I would've even started the course. So it was good.

Alison Wells: Hi, my name is Alison Wells. I'm a partnership manager with the Warner Institute. The Warner Institute is a private, registered training organisation. Naomi is gorgeous. So I rang her and invited her to an information session. Naomi is always very forthcoming with information and a really lovely person, and spent probably an hour and a half to two hours with her just talking about the program, what she might expect from it. And how she would go about undertaking her studies and enrolling. And in that session, she chose to enrol.

Anyone who is interested or who is just starting with Parents/Next, I can't recommend them highly enough. It really is about empowering people to make changes within their lives. But not just to their lives, but to their children's lives and to their family's lives, and that's so important.

Belinda Galea: I'm Belinda. I work for APM Parents/Next in Traralgon. I worked with Naomi in Traralgon. I've been working with Naomi for about 12 months, 14 months now. When Naomi first come to Parents/Next, she was quite reluctant about the program, a little bit confused and frustrated on what she was supposed to be doing. Couldn't understand why she was here. There was a few suggestions made to Naomi, and she was quite excited about age care. So we followed that path. We contacted Warner Institute and I spoke with Alison. I work quite closely with Alison.

The change in Naomi didn't take long, which was quite surprising to me. Once Naomi was opened up to options and possibilities, it wasn't hard for Naomi to get excited about education. So that was good just to see the change from when Naomi first come to see me, to her up there receiving her graduation certificate was fantastic. And knowing at that point that she'd actually secured employment was just, it was overwhelming for both of us. I think it was a journey well taken, I think. So yeah, it was good.