Support to transition to work
For young couple Sarah and Josiah, finding employment in a pandemic-impacted job market has been a huge challenge. As a budding Aboriginal artist, Sarah recently took time away from her archaeology degree to focus on her passion and find ways to make a living from art when she returns to university. With support from AnglicareSA’s Transition to Work program, she has spent the past few weeks building a visual arts portfolio and a website. “I’ve been working with my Transition to Work coach on pulling together my art projects,” she said. “Things are obviously slow at the moment because of the way life is, so I figured it would be a good idea to slowly work on a portfolio.” Sarah’s passion for art comes from her family and her connection to culture and country. “Being Aboriginal, I have always been drawn towards Aboriginal art,” she said. “I’ve experienced some identity issues and I think learning about and doing Aboriginal art has helped me connect a bit better to who I am. “I actually didn’t know I could do digital art until I got an iPad last year and started drawing for fun.” Since then, Sarah has worked on reconciliation action plans for different organisations, as well as fabric designs, and AnglicareSA has also helped her find some recent work. “Marion and Onkaparinga Council were doing a youth seminar, so I designed a logo. Right now, I’m working on a piece for a kindergarten,” she said. “One day I hope to do something on a big scale – maybe something like the Adelaide Fringe, where there is exposure but it’s meaningful too.”
Transition to Work participants Josiah and Sarah
The couple said the key for them has been having another person to trust and lean on when it comes to carving their career paths, and to be part of a program that is ‘’really culturally safe’’. “We both come from pretty humble backgrounds, so it helps a lot having another adult to bounce off and reassure you that you’re doing the right thing,” Sarah said. “AnglicareSA has not only supported us jobwise, but through food and financial support – we’ve been in bad situations where we didn’t know if we were going to eat for a couple days and AnglicareSA has really supported us through that, too.”
Sarah was originally connected to AnglicareSA through Josiah, her partner, who initially engaged with the program in 2019. The program helped him get job- ready, working together with him on his resume, cover letters and identifying what it is he wanted to do – work in the horticultural industry. He was also supported to obtain his driver’s, excavator and chainsaw licenses and white card. “I was struggling to find work and not many were hiring, but there was some upholstery work going and I got the job,” he said. “AnglicareSA supported me throughout the process.” While the devastating bushfire season in 2020 saw Josiah’s upholstery apprenticeship fall through, he now has a full-time position with a horticultural company – the industry he has long wanted to be a part of. “I always wanted a horticultural job – I just like being outdoors, I’m one with the land,” Josiah said.
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