Happy World Autism Awareness Day
In honour of Autism Awareness Day, one of our clients Lewis is excited to share his story with you. Lewis is a young man with Autism and has been supported by Edge for close to nine years. Today is important to Lewis because it raises awareness of the challenges that people with Autism can face. One of these challenges can be securing and maintaining meaningful and fulfilling employment. It’s been Edge’s pleasure to help Lewis overcome this challenge.
When we first met Lewis, he was still at school, and like most students, he was uncertain of what the future would look like for him. To help Lewis we focused on employment and began by trying to understand what his ideal job might look like. We were able to secure a school-based traineeship in an administration role at UWA’s School of Dentistry. Lewis gained some valuable experience and learned more about what he likes in a job. For some, an ideal job has travel opportunities, part-time hours or a premium salary- Lewis appreciated structure to his daily tasks. Upon completion of his traineeship, everything Lewis learnt helped him and us secure the perfect job for him.
For the last seven years Lewis has and continues to be happily working at Dôme in Mullaloo. A typical day at Dôme for Lewis includes serving food and drinks, operating the till and occasionally helping the kitchen with food preparation. In Lewis’s words “I enjoy all my jobs at work. It is amazing working at Dôme, everyone is really nice and supportive, and we work well as a team. I have been at Dôme 7 years because the staff and my bosses have been really friendly and supportive. They also helped me overcome any challenges I have faced. I also love serving the friendly customers and have regulars that I see nearly every day.”
Lewis also appreciates the inclusive culture at Dôme Mullaloo- “At Dôme I work with people from different cultures, backgrounds and nationalities. I treat everyone the same. We work well together as a team and support each other.”
At Edge we know the power of employment isn’t only felt at work and so does Lewis: “being employed makes me feel more confident and gives me a value of self worth. Employment makes me feel that I can contribute to society and especially my local community. I know lots of people who I see socially who I met through working at Dôme. Outside of work I do a lot of sport and gaming. The sports I do are surf life saving and rock climbing, the gaming I do is both competitive and casual. Work has definitely helped me be more confident with things I do outside of work.”
“To other people with disabilities, always try and remain positive and never give up. There are always nice and accepting people who will give you an opportunity to show that you can be an important contributor to society and be able to be self sufficient.”
We are so happy for Lewis and hope Lewis’s words brought a smile to your face as they did ours! Lewis didn’t let his challenges hold him back, he acknowledged them and then turned the tables on them. It’s been Edge’s pleasure to help Lewis grow into the man he is today.
We would also like to acknowledge Dôme Mullaloo – we salute and support you through these rough days – when we can. We look forward to seeing Lewis’s smile and enjoying a coffee at Dôme Mullaloo.
If you want to learn more about how Edge can help you, please contact us.