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In October 2022, Billie embarked on her journey with Prace as a Reconnect Case Worker. She quickly discovered that the sense of community woven into every aspect of Prace was an excellent match for her own personal values.
“When I was studying psychology I took a unit in community development and I loved this approach to social and community work. This, and my experience living in a small rural community, drove my move into the area of community services,” she said.
“I saw the effectiveness of strategies that emerge when people are aware of a need and can come up with grassroots initiatives, rather than having solutions imposed on them from an external source.”
Billie saw this first-hand when the coal mining town where she was living was stricken with a mental health epidemic, following the closure of the mine. People who had spent their whole working lives in the mining industry, and were sometimes second or third generation miners, were suddenly unemployed with few job prospects on the horizon.
The mental health of the male population was particularly affected because the job losses not only took away their income but also impacted their identity as breadwinners and their notions of masculinity.
“It was eye-opening the way an economic decision could affect people physically, socially, psychologically – on all different levels,” said Billie.
“Being a rural town, the inhabitants had experienced various natural disasters, such as fires and floods, over the years, but it felt that this man-made disaster had a different impact and seemed to create the mental health epidemic.”
However, the town pulled together and came up with a lot of community driven activities: musicians put on concerts, artists created events and people were engaged in working together to boost community spirits.
Billie said she had found a similar sense of community at Prace.
“There’s a great feeling that we are all working towards the same goal, namely connecting people to education and employment. Staff from different programs are happy to sit down with me and chat about possible pathways for a particular student.
“We also collaborate with various other bodies to provide wrap-around support for our students, so they can get assistance with mental health, legal, drug and alcohol, disability support, or domestic violence issues.
“Some of the assistance we offer might be navigating the public transport system, accessing services from government agencies or visiting a potential campus for future studies.
“An important part of what we do is helping build confidence and independence so our students can stay on their chosen paths. We are very flexible with our interactions, so we might meet in the office, or go to a café for a catch-up, or go for a walk if that works better.
“My role is very variable, because no two people are the same. The one thing that doesn’t change is that the Reconnect team members listen to our clients’ needs and personalise our approach to best serve those needs”.
Learn more about the Reconnect program here.
