Bree - Ellie's Couch transcript

Bree: To hear a year and a half later that she's doing so well is like, one honestly, the reason I come to work most mornings.

Bree: My name is Bree. I am 25, and I work as an Employment Consultant at APM.

Ellie: And where do you live?

Bree: Newcastle. I also love the country life, love our farm where we go to on the weekend. So it's kind of a bit of a tug and tug. I love the accessibility of everything in Newcastle, but I also love the peace and quiet at our farm.

Ellie: And it's my understanding that you were four years old when you acquired your disability.

Bree: Love my mum. She's best mum in the world. But she just thought I was a really naughty kid.

Ellie: Yeah.

Bree: And she was like, “Oh my God, this kids not listening to me. What is happening?” Like, “she's just so naughty”. But then yeah, like the footy was on the TV and it was on mute, and I lip read what the footy player said, and my mom was like, “hang on a damn minute”, like, “that's not right”. And so, yeah, she took me to the doctor and they actually did the testing because they never did it back at birth, so once they did the testing, they're like, “oh, like you've actually got like moderate hearing loss”.

Ellie: Think back to going through high school, not being able to hear as well as the kids in your class, but being able to read body language and other social cues. Do you think that's given you a different edge throughout your life?

Bree: Absolutely. Like, I feel like I'm really in tune with body language, really in tune with like non-verbal cues, especially lip reading. Like, I can pick up on a lot more stuff than I feel like I give myself credit for because I've had to rely on every other sense when my hearing was down. In this job with APM, you're dealing with a lot of vulnerable people and I feel like I've got that ability to be able to empathise with them and really, like, try and put myself in their shoes.

Ellie: Going through the experience yourself where you have a disability, do you think that's translated into your role as a disability employment consultant at APM?

Bree: Absolutely. Like, I think even my role before APM where I was a support worker, that gave me a lot of foundational skills. Me having a disability really gave me the secure foundation to say, you know what, like I've still dealt with the element of “no too hard basket. We're not going to hire you. Too much admin. Can't really be bothered to deal with it”, and fought against that.

Ellie: Being an APM Employment Consultant, what does that entail? What does that mean?

Bree: To me, it means not just I'm here to get you a job and, like, just put you into any old job. To me, it means working with you, whether we need to put you in training, whether we need to look at teaching you interview skills. There’s a lot of things that I do before employment to help someone get their confidence skills up, to be able to attend an interview and make them feel like they're worthy of that job.

Ellie: Is APM in Newcastle, is it quite embedded in the community there?

Bree: Yeah, absolutely. I've actually worked really hard on a relationship with Jenny's Place in Newcastle. So they are a women's owned, run, organisation that focuses on the support for domestic violence and homelessness for women. And the best thing that came out of that was that every woman that came into our office that was homeless or going through DV, we gave them that resource to Jenny's Place. In return, some of the females that have been there that got the major support they needed were then ready to start looking for work. So it's like a really good return kind of thing of, like, this is how we can support you now, and then in future when you're ready to come back.

Ellie: It's amazing to hear the support there because we all know that APM enables better lives but if you think about partnerships like that, it enables better communities as well and to have that community support there.

Bree: Absolutely. Being able to be really patient with them as well and just work with them and say you know, like, when you're ready on your terms, I'm here for you and let's find you something.

Ellie: Yeah.

Bree: And then to hear a year and a half later that she's doing so well is like, honestly the reason I come to work most mornings, I look at that and I'm, like, if I can do that for her, I can do that for someone else. From where I sit sometimes with employers where you first speak to them and you're, like, look I've got a client with a disability, like this is what they need out of a workplace, this is their barriers, and it sounds so bad but, like, as soon as you mention disability, they assume the worst. And the best part of my job is breaking down that barrier.

Ellie: Yeah.

Bree: And just watching the employer go, “oh, like, okay, like, you know, like, we can work with this. We can actually, we've got the skills and the resources from you guys that we need to help this client. It's not as scary as what we thought it was”.

Ellie: Yeah. I'm really excited about what your future's going to look like. I feel like APM’s very lucky to have you.

Bree: And I look forward to seeing where APM takes me.