Through an opportune meeting at an Employment Forum with an interested employer, APM Communities Employment Project Team were able to create and deliver a successful employment outcome for a person with disability.
In 2022, the Food, Fibre and Timber Industry Training Council of WA invited APM Communities Employment Project Team to present to the Training Council and their member employers at an Employment Forum.
The topic was about the approach of Customised Employment, meaningful employment of people with disabilities and NDIS employment supports.
There were over 80 people on the day who attended the forum learning how this approach could assist them to confidently create employment for people with disabilities in suitable, meaningful and most importantly sustainable roles within their workplaces.
Speaking at the event was Will Scott-Jeffs, a member of APM Communities Employment Project Team who earlier last year gained employment through the approach of Customised Employment and NDIS Employment Supports.
Will shared his journey with attendees, and how his role as Local Area Coordinator Support Officer for the Employment Project came about and what meaningful employment has done for him.
At this forum the APM Communities team met with LV Dohnt & Co Pty Ltd Forestry who are one of Australia’s largest and oldest infield chipping and logging companies.
They wanted to re-look at their recruitment practices and policies to assist and encourage people with disabilities into meaningful and customised employment opportunities.
The team met with Darren Culverwell, Chief Operating Officer at LV Dohnt to understand the unmet needs within their organisation and what area of their business could benefit from the skills and abilities of a person with disability.
Darren said that “we want to do this entire process as prescribed so that our experience can be used to encourage other employers in our sector to use this approach to employ People with Disabilities in meaningful and created employment opportunities, we need to think differently in our approach.”
APM Communities reached out to the 12 NDIS service providers who deliver on the approach of Customised Employment to identify NDIS participants who had gone through the discovery process and who were keen to be put forward for employment opportunities at LV Dohnt.
Through the combined support of APM Communities and the NDIS providers, Darren scheduled Informational Interviews which were an opportunity for candidates to attend to learn about LV Dohnt, the Customised Employment opportunities and for Darren to learn more about the individuals.
After a long unemployment journey, NDIS participant Jack commenced in his new role as Document Controller for LV Dohnt.
It was an emotional moment for Jack as he had given up hope of finding meaningful employment.
This collaborative approach assisted Jack to gain meaningful employment in a role where he has the specific interests and skills in, as well as helped LV Dohnt to create an employment opportunity that will focus on addressing one of their major unmet needs and formalise their future recruitment processes.
Looking to the future, the APM Communities team will create a Customised Employment outcome paper, in collaboration with the Food, Fibre and Timber Industry Training Council of WA and LV Dohnt, to help encourage other employers in the Food, Fibre and Timber industry to be more confident in creating meaningful employment opportunities for people with disabilities.