RAILS and APM Employment Services transcript

My name is Chantel Togo. I am the general manager of RAILS Support. I'm a proud First Nations woman from the Bundjalung region and South Sea Islander.

RAILS stands for Real Australian Indigenous Learning Support.

So we're a First Nations 100% owned and operated NDIS service provider. So our services range from our northern Gold Coast all the way down to the northern regions in New South Wales. So we provide a range of different supports to NDIS clients, inclusive of personal care, domestic supports, support coordination, might also include yard maintenance support.

So we've been operating for around about four years. Definitely growing as an organisation.

And yeah, just providing so much needed support to NDIS participants.

My name’s Martin Griese. I am the indigenous specialist consultant for APM on the Gold Coast.

I was driving down the highway and I’ve seen one of the RAILS cars, and when I got back to the office, I called them up, and said, hey, just want to know a little bit about you guys, you know, we've got the indigenous contract on the Gold Coast. I think we might be able to do something together to benefit mob and our participants.

My name is Gary. I'm from Southport, Gold Coast. Before I came to the program, I lost a lot of people in my life that, I never thought I'd ever lose. The Balan Jagun program has actually helped me with learning the culture, getting to know the people that are my people, my land, and helping me with music.

Balan Jagun is the Yugambeh word for strong country. We're in Yugambeh language region here in Bundjalung Nation. So it is a job readiness program which we facilitated, for First Nation participants in the workplace, Workforce Australia.

My name is Matthew. I'm from the Gold Coast. I'm a Bundjalung man. The reason why I joined it was because it was good to communicate and understand the program, just to be around, with everyone and getting to know everyone was probably the best thing for myself. Making new friends and talking about culture, and talking about mental awareness as well.

So the program encompasses a lot of different cultural activities to be able to strengthen the participants, to have, I suppose, the courage and the skills to be able to go out to secure the jobs that they see for the future.

I was quite, quite lost. I didn't have a sense of direction. I had some challenges in life, with addiction. I experienced homelessness. Grief and loss. What I got from the Balan Jagun program was a sense of identity. Something that was lacking for me, was connection to culture and country. It's an ongoing journey and I think one point that I really stipulated, and a lot of the facilitators throughout the program, is that, the support just doesn't end at the end of the two weeks, it continues to flow on, it continues to have the follow up to check in with the participants and how they're going.

Before I came to APM, life was, I was in a confusing area. Didn't know my pathway. Got mental health problems, getting up in the morning was hard. I wanted to join Balan Jagun to sort of get on the right path and sort of find some work, sort of keep me busy. Balan Jagun taught me what's important about culture, not only about culture, but being with other people, mob and stuff.

As the director of RAILS it's been a privilege, and I'm so proud to see two organisations come together to provide the best sort of interest for our people, to put them in jobs and to network into different sort of pathways. I hope to see this continue to give more people opportunity.

The partnership that we have with APM is one that we value very much. It's an organisation and it's just as proactive and as passionate as us.

Having APM on my side, having their support, like, it means a lot. It's boosted my confidence a lot.

I find I have some barriers with finding work sometimes and some knowledge I don't have fully that APM can help me with.

With APM, I finally made a connection with Martin. He really listened to me. The first person that actually really listened to my story, and what I needed.

To have successful participants at the end of the program, it was really cool. I was like the proud dad, and they found that sense of belonging, they found that person that they could lean on if they needed to.

Dear past me, I know you never got to ask me, but life's been pretty good these last weeks.

It's gone fast see, but I'm pretty proud with how far we've come and the way that things played out.

In a calm state of mind, I hope to make a dime one day.

I'm gonna pray to know that hope is on my side.

So just buckle up, get ready for the ride, for the long trip.