We #Embrace Equity!

It’s International Women’s Day and on this day, and every day, the team at BUSY Ability and BUSY Health support gender inclusion. Here at BUSY, we encourage all our staff to walk the walk by ‘embracing equity, embracing diversity and embracing inclusion’.

We took the time to interview four of our incredible female staff members who represent a cross-section of women at BUSY – and who are inspiring other women every day! Here’s what they had to say.

Tekeela Greenhalgh, Employment Consultant with BUSY Ability

Tell us a little about yourself?

I’m a proud Ngemba woman, a young mum, passionate and creative with a lot of love to give.

Before coming to BUSY Ability, I worked in a Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre. I now work as an Employment Consultant with BUSY Ability, working within our specialist contract to support our participants with a lived experience of the justice system, assisting them to address their barriers, become job ready and obtain employment. I am focused on building relationships in the community with indigenous organisations to support our clients. I am also on the Reconciliation Action Plan committee at BUSY, dedicated to making change and closing the gap for our Indigenous participants.

What’s the best part of your job?

The best part of my job is being a part of other people’s journeys to support them. I love seeing growth in people and the way someone’s energy can change when they accomplish things they didn’t know were possible before.

A highlight in my career has been the opportunity to be in a role where I can help vulnerable people in my community to move forward in their life and help empower them. I have many good news stories from my time working in community services and I feel aligned and purposeful knowing that I am helping make a difference.

I love my Gold Coast team who are so supportive and passionate about the work they do. We have an amazing culture here at BUSY and I finding myself missing work if I have ever been away.

What do you consider to be your special superpower in life?

My lived experience and how it helps me connect with and understand other people.

If you could change one thing in the world today for women, what would it be?

Social standards that make a woman worthy, we are fierce and beautiful without definitions!

 

Loretta Evans, Pre-Release Team Leader, Specialist Employment Services

Tell us a little about yourself?

Kia-Ora my name is Lorretta Evans and I’m from a beautiful place called Rotorua in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

I’ve been working in Community Services for over 15 years. Prior to my move to Australia, I worked with families with disabilities, in the legal and prison systems, and government funding.

I’m grateful now to be living in Australia with my children and working for BUSY Ability doing a similar line of work. I’m very passionate about supporting people with a lived experience of the justice system, back into employment and assisting with positive changes towards their future. I enjoy delivering our programmes and services at BUSY Ability, helping them to achieve their goals.

What role do you and BUSY Ability play in helping people?

I am the team leader for BUSY Ability’s pre-release team. We deliver four-week programs across ten correctional centres in Queensland, assisting incarcerated clientele connect to employer opportunities.

Our program assists with cover letters, resumes and interview techniques. Our awesome BUSY Ability offices also support participants when they get released with appropriate attire, licences, and addressing any barriers to set them up for success and into employment.

What is the best part of your job?

Providing a great service that assists our clients when they get released back into the community and back into employment.

What has been a highlight in your career?

A client I worked with who was in and out of incarceration, hadn’t had full-time employment for over twenty years. I had worked with him for six months, and helped prepare him to transition into employment.

He informed me he had visited his five children and his mother for the first time in over ten years and took them all out for dinner and paid for it. He said that sitting at a table with his loved ones, who never used to pick up his phone calls, to having Christmas lunch with them was the best Christmas he has had in a very long time.

What do you consider to be your special superpower in life?

The ability to communicate with people from different cultures and walks of life and support them back into employment and be a part of positive changes for them and their families.

If you could change one thing in the world today for women, what would it be?

That there is more support in place for women when they SPEAK UP when abuse is happening in their home.

 

Debra Richardson, Employment Consultant

Tell us a little about yourself?

My early career was as a nurse with the last twelve years working at Townsville General Hospital.  During this period, I met and worked with some of the best specialists in the world. After having small children, I left this industry as doing shift work became too hard to juggle. I then worked in the aged care sector where I worked day shifts for many years as a carer for the elderly living in the hostel residency.  I was able to balance work-life duties as my children could come to the homes when on school holidays and they spent a lot of time with the residents, talking to them, reading for those who had trouble seeing etc.

In the beginning of 2010, I could no longer work in these industries due to having a bad back so I enrolled in a business degree and by November that year, I commenced in the employment services sector. In this industry I’ve held a few positions as employment consultant, team leader and staff educator.

What role do you and BUSY Ability play in helping people?

I have been employed by BUSY Ability for just over four years as an employment consultant and senior job coach.  During this period, I have seen our company change we have a lot of excellent complementary services at The BUSY Group that I can refer my clients to assist them with their non-vocational barriers and training requirements.

I support jobseekers in the Cleveland region. My years of experience in employment services and the care industries has helped me to assist clients, referring them to service providers in the community to help them address their non-vocational barriers. These barriers can range from homelessness, drug and alcohol issues, domestic violence and mental health issues.

What is the best part of your job?

Seeing the positive change in my clients from the day they were commenced into our services, preparing them for the workforce and skilling them up to gain meaningful employment.

What has been a highlight in your career?

It’s an honour to be able to change peoples’ lives in this industry.

I once had a female client who I referred to counselling for her mental health issues and trauma due to domestic violence.  Six months later she felt she was ready to go back into the workforce. As she was of Italian descent, we found her work in an Italian restaurant in the city where she has thrived and is well-liked by all. We also supported her into her own unit as she was living with her daughter and four grandchildren.

Another client was a young girl whose mother was a drug addict and she was left to be raised by her grandparents. I also referred her to counselling and we put her through a course in Aged Care.  When she graduated, we found employment for her, and I told her how proud I was for what she had achieved over the last six months. She asked me for a hug as she had never been hugged in her life. We both shed tears. She later found out where her father was and built a great relationship with him and found she had two other sisters – she is now part of a stable family.

There are so many stories of peoples lives we have changed for the better!

What do you consider to be your special superpower in life?

The ability to listen, show empathy when needed and genuinely care about helping people with various issues.  To work with my co-workers and assist them when required.

If you could change one thing in the world today for women, what would it be?

Better pay and more recognition for their achievements in the community!

 

Ashleigh Davies, Operations Manager BUSY Health & NDIS

Tell us a little about yourself?

I’m a mum, wife, mental health advocate and change maker.  I have worked as a business developer across the healthcare sector for 10 years consulting and establishing multiple health-based businesses.

What role do you and BUSY Health play in helping people?

I am the Operations Manager for BUSY Health & NDIS. In a nutshell my job is to actively identify and lead the implementation of business strategies to the success of my team and benefit of our wider communities. One way in which I do this is by supporting and helping create fit for purpose programs for our participants to help achieve BUSY’s commitment to having more people in education, training, and employment.

What is the best part of your job?

I get to wake up every day knowing that I am helping improve and adding value to someone’s life and that’s a pretty cool feeling! That and I have the most incredible, supportive and hardworking teams in the world.

What has been a highlight in your career?

Finding my BUSY Health and NDIS work family, we have all had those jobs where the cultural fit just didn’t align, and I am so proud to say that I wake up every day looking forward to collaborating with my team and truly making a difference toward peoples mental health and employability.

What do you consider to be your special superpower in life?

I live with an invisible illness better known as ulcerative colitis (UC).  For those who don’t know what UC is, it’s a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in which abnormal reactions of the immune system cause inflammation and ulcers on the inner lining of your large intestine. It causes a considerable amount of pain and requires 6 weekly infusions in the hospital. Fun Fact! My specialist has run studies on how I can operate at the capacity I do which they have put down to my diet, strict sleep pattern, exercise, and mindfulness practices.  Hopefully by me telling you this it brings some awareness to invisible illness – you just never know what your workmates are going through.

If you could change one thing in the world today for women, what would it be?

To dissipate the fear and backlash associated with women showing the desire to pursue leadership.  We are so fortunate to work for a group that empowers female leadership but that is not the case for most women with studies from the Australian Government revealing the reality of gender inequality in our workplaces, with just 16 per cent of CEOs being female and just 28 per cent of key management positions being held by women.  It’s not that the opportunities don’t exist for women, it’s often the backlash they experience when showing desire for the role.

So, if you’re thinking about applying for a leadership role just remember: YOU’RE INCREDIBLE, YOU’RE TALENTED AND YOU’RE NOT DEFINED BY YOUR GENDER! BACK YOURSELF YOU’VE GOT THIS!