Christine has worked in disability her whole life and has always been connected with the subject through her siblings with disabilities. She has always been an advocate for the disadvantaged and held charity work close to her heart. Christine has gone from starting her own charity group, focused on assisting at-risk kids, to trekking in Nepal to raise funds for Save the Children Foundation.
Christine started her career as a disability support worker from Crown Homes in Sydney, where she connected with people with a disability due to her background. Christine continued on to working in aged care as well as drugs and alcohol. Despite of endeavours in other areas, she was always drawn back to disability work, where she felt she could make the most difference.
During her career, Christine has held many roles from organising community outings and putting together plays, to respite care. Although, the role she takes the most joy on is being a Support Worker. After many years in the industry, Christine completed her Certificate IV in Disability. Even though this qualification is not mandatory to obtain, Christine says it opened her eyes to issues society has with inclusiveness. Being acceptive of each person no matter their abilities and treating everyone with respect, are some of the values Christine stands for.
Most important skills and qualities for Disability Support Workers
Caring attitude, kindness, empathy, awareness and being a good role model are characteristics she lists as the most important aspects for a Support Worker. In addition to her training, Christine draws skills from her experience as a single mother and grandmother. Christine always acknowledged her children and grandchildren and talks to them about challenging situations. Instead of ignoring matters important to each person despite how irrelevant they may seem. In support work, life experience is highly valued as it can teach us how to interact, to communicate and to respect differences in a meaningful way.
The kind and caring person she is, Christine has raised a significant amount of funds for charity over the years. In 2002, after becoming a single mum, Christine formed a group for at risk youth living on the streets. She would run fundraising events and managed to raise enough to purchase a community bus for transporting kids to safe locations. Christine drove around the streets of Ballina, NSW, looking for at-risk kids, talked to them and ensured they were taken somewhere safe. After a while, she became well-known amongst the youths for her work and assisted four kids to get jobs in the local community.
A passionate and dedicated NDIS Support Worker
Christine donates a small amount to the Register Your Dream – campaign every month. UDC runs this campaign to ensure the people we support get the opportunity to live their dreams, just like everyone else. In addition, Christine regularly donates to Save the Children Foundation as helping kids is incredibly dear to her. A while back, she was asked to go on a fundraising trip to the Himalayas in Nepal, which she accepted instantaneously. On the trekking excursion, Christine and others managed to raise over $2000 for charity. She also visited local orphanages and donated much-needed items to the children. At the start of 2022, Christine was one of the people who lost everything in the horrific NSW floods. Despite the misfortune, Christine remains positive and keeps giving to others. In her words:
“I give to others because I don’t need anything, I’ve got everything I need.
What an incredibly passionate, determined and purpose driven person Christine is. UDC and the people we support are not only blessed for having her in our UDC family our lives are better for it too. Thank you Christine for all you do and continue to do in our community.
