Julia Shumaker

Throughout the past seven years, I have had the valuable opportunity to provide support to a young man with a disability residing in Canberra, facilitating his integration into the workforce through the application of Customized Employment.This involved close collaboration with his supervisors and colleagues to ensure his efficacy in various roles, while also imparting upon them the knowledge and assurance to effectively guide him in his capacity as an employee. Responsibilities undertaken were:

• Networking with businesses to seek out employment opportunities for the young man
• Support to master tasks and explore additional duties in the young man's current job
• Support to build personal and professional relationships
• Liaising with coworkers and employers to identify challenges, to implement remedial actions to enhance job performance
• Facilitated coaching for the young man's coworkers to instill confidence in working alongside people with disability

Over the duration of the past five years, I have offered my services through MadPaws in the realm of regular dog walking and overnight pet sitting, predominantly within clients' homes. I currently provide walks for three long-term clients on a daily basis. Other skills I have developed through my experience in petsitting are:

• Establishing meaningful client rapport: Alongside animal care, I have built numerous long-term relationships with clientele through trust, compassion and communication. This had led to years of personal, as well as professional relationship
• Medication Administration: On occasion, it is required by clients to administer prescribed medication. I have confidently issued tablets, oral and aural medication
• Residential Maintenance: Ensuring not only the well-being of the animals but also yard and home upkeep duties (eg. garden watering, regular vacuuming, wiping and disinfecting surfaces)
• Animal Welfare Experience: Equipped with fundamental knowledge in basic first aid for animals through both MadPaws training and CIT education

Last year I co-facilitated the 'School to Work' project which involves workshops, webinars, conferences, peer groups and 1:1 support for families in finding and keeping meaningful employment for their family member with disability. My role as co-facilitator included duties such as:

• Facilitating/transcribing online peer groups
• Providing 1:1 mentoring for families who have engaged an employment consultant
• Data entry for Imagine More member profiles
• Creating website training resources
• Revising conference speaker presentations
• Management of flights/accommodation for conference speakers
• Presenting at Imagine More's conferences, Opening Opportunities (2023) and Get That Good Life (2021)

While contributing to the retail environment, duties included:

• Operating the cash register with accuracy
• Labelling pharmacy medication in accordance with established systems
• Delivering attentive customer service within a retail environment
• Demonstrated capability in managing stock inventory, including receiving, organizing, and replenishing merchandise to ensure presentation
• Maintaining store cleanliness and organization through housekeeping practices involving dusting, surface disinfection, and sweeping