EmployMe is delighted to present stablehand Stephen Payne as a nominee for Racing Victoria’s Employee of the Year Awards at Moonee Valley last Saturday night.
Stephen has worked in the stable of thoroughbred racing identity Darren Weir for seven years now. As a stable-hand, Stephen straps and saddles horses at the races and stables, grooms, cleans stalls and distributes feed to the stable. His manager says “the horses love him and respect him. It’s fantastic to watch him and the horse work together. I would employ many more Stephen’s. He’s up here at 4am every workday morning. His work rate is astonishing. And so is his horse-riding!”
If you know of any other amazing employees like Stephen, then please let us know in our blog below.
You can share your story with others at our Facebook community: EmployMe and PWD, People with Disability Australia Inc.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Employme/516439028446500?ref=hl
Please feel free to contact us at www.EmployMe.com
I love this story. And I love the call for readers to submit more stories about people they know - there's a lot on this site and on the Facebook page that really focuses on building a community around this movement for better employment outcomes for people with disabilities. So a lot of the momentum from your business comes from your audience interacting with each other - the 'web' type of connection we talked about on Monday, rather than the 'hub' or 'pool'. There's a real strength in this and it's something you could build on further - e.g. create a space on the web (on the blog or a linked site) where you'd collect and assemble inspirational stories submitted by members of your community. I could see that becoming really popular, and if so it would become a resource you could use to mobilise people to take action on priority campaigns (like the petition to the Prime Minister).
ReplyDeleteThere's also a real sense of energy and momentum created by the site and FB page - particularly in the campaigning/lobbying of government, challenging businesses to do better in employing people with disabilities, and making a direct call to action around a clear, genuine cause. The look and feel of the site is great as well, with the bright colours and lots of photos and videos, it gives a really positive impression. Great job!
Thanks Ben. Your comments are very much appreciated. Yes, there are many wonderful and fantastic persons that we would like to hear from so we can offer them support and help them find employment. We are also interested in hearing from business owners who have the good sense to employ some very talented persons.
ReplyDeleteWe are glad that you can sense our call to business owners, those looking for employment, employees, legislators and voters to tell us their stories so we can build a vibrant community and use our collateral to make a difference for the disabled. Our dream would be for all those looking for meaningful work to find employment, but more importantly, we would like to see a shift in thinking and behaviour from employers to include and employ disabled persons in their businesses.
We have a long way to go.
Ultimately, we would like to take our campaign and message global, yes, around the world, especially to developing countries, where the issues are even more pronounced and difficult for most disabled persons. So, if you like, we would like to build a world-wide web for disability employment and services. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could establish a world-wide body for disability services; a voluntary international group of subscribers and campaigners that could monitor and influence communities to do more for the disabled.
In the first instance, we need to be aware of how we are currently treating some members in our community and embrace the many possibilities and opportunities available for the disabled if only we use our imagination.
Thanks again for your support and comments. Best wishes from EmployMe.
Drawing attention to disability rights in the developing world would be a huge step forward - this is something that doesn't get much attention in the international development sector but must be a huge issue. If around 20% of Australians have a disability and the proportions are similar in the developing world, we're talking about a lot of people. And from my limited knowledge of the situation for people with disabilities in developing countries, their situation is often dire - when I was in Kenya a few years ago I met a guy who'd been born deaf, he was in his 20s and had absolutely no way of communicating with people because he'd never been taught sign language. It was as if he was walking around in a bubble, completely isolated. And of course Meike from Seven Women told us about how disabled women in Nepal are completely shunned and considered to be cursed.
DeleteI did a quick Google just now and couldn't see much at all around international disability advocacy bodies - so it seems there is a gap there that your organisation could help fill.