Bec working at Only About Children
Bec
In 2014, Bec was part of a group of customers from our Parramatta Life Skills service who told us they were interested in working with children.
To support them to achieve this goal, Northcott partnered with childcare organisation Only About Children. Together they developed a supported employment program for people with disability. This was the start of a dream career for Bec, who celebrated 10 years with Only About Children in September 2024.
“With my Northcott support worker, I did 6 weeks of training before starting the job,” Bec explains. “I started working one day a week, then moved to two days.”
Bec is supported by two Northcott staff, Monica and Ghaydaa, who attend work with her, assisting her to interact with the children. She also works with other Northcott support workers to plan and prepare her lessons.
Bec enjoys reading to the children
“I feel more confident, and I think I love my job even more because I now know what I am doing!”
– Bec
What Bec does
Bec’s lessons focus on teaching the kids about her disability. “I’m proud to tell the kids about my disability to educate them. They are quite curious and ask me questions about how I do things,” she says.
“My favourite thing to do is play games. Sometimes I read to them, using a storybook printed onto A4 paper and my iPad.”
Northcott Speech Therapist, Ashleigh Belic, has also been heavily involved in supporting Bec at work. Together they have found suitable communication tools to help Bec interact with the children.
A proud achievement
Bec is enormously proud of achieving her goal of working in childcare.
“Most relatives and friends don’t believe it!” she says. “I always thought that I could do it, but I didn’t know for how long, or what I would do with the kids.”
All the Northcott staff who have supported her along the way are equally gratified.
When Lei Zhao started as a support worker for Northcott in 2015, one of her favourite days was supporting Bec during her childcare shifts. Lei now supports Bec to plan her lessons.
“Bec and I been working together for 10 years,” Lei says. “Working at Only About Children has given Bec more confidence. Before she would always ask herself, ‘can I do that?’. Now she is more confident and likes to try new things.”
Bec’s gratitude
Bec is extremely grateful to Northcott and Only About Children for supporting her.
“I would like to say thank you very much to Only About Children for letting me come to work with you. I am also thankful to my Northcott support workers for their help supporting me,” Bec says.
Reflecting on the past 10 years, she says, “I feel more confident, and I think I love my job even more because I now know what I am doing!”
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