One of APM Communities Employment Project team’s role is to provide Customised Employment supports.
The team have achieved success with their support of 18-year-old Jayelan Lee, a young man who is non-verbal and autistic.
APM Communities first met Jayelan and his mum Aemy four years ago whilst delivering an Employment Supports information session at his school.
These information sessions are designed to assist transition partners to have a better understanding of NDIS Employment Supports and to introduce them to the Customised Employment approach.
Aemy along with several other parents chose to attend a subsequent Customised Employment workshop to learn how the approach could be used to assist their young person.
Together, Aemy and Jayelan’s support worker, who was funded through Jayelan’s NDIS youth employment support, guided Jayelan through the discovery phase of the Customised Employment approach.
They matched Jayelan’s capabilities and interests with his goal of becoming an advocate for people who live with autism.
With the full support of his mum and support worker, as well as his high school Jayelan launched his own micro-enterprise as a Disability Advocate Public Speaker, achieving his long-held employment goal and suitable, sustainable and meaningful employment as a public speaker advocate for people with disability.
He has since been invited to speak at the Spectrum Space Symposium, three times at Curtin University, People with Disability WA (PWDWA) State Conference, the City of Cockburn, Notre Dame University and twice at the Fremantle Education Centre.
More recently Jayelan travelled to University Malaysia Sabah, where he delivered his Silent World Of Autism presentation to the Sabah Autism Society.
"I hope that by sharing my story I was able to give hope to parents in Malaysia with non-verbal autistic kids," Jayelan says.
Jayelan acknowledges NDIS employment support as an important part of his career development.
"I would definitely recommend NDIS participants utilise employment support funding to explore meaningful employment options," Jayelan says.
“The Employment Family Peer Group Project is one of the projects that the APM Communities Employment Project team has created with the aim of facilitating families and people with disability to form support groups" Gaelen Williams, Project Manager for Community Capacity Building at APM Communities said.
"These groups help group members understand NDIS Customised Employment supports and to self-manage these supports if appropriate. It has been wonderful to watch Jayelan flourish over the past four years and for him to reach his employment goals.”