Christian has many skills and a desire to work, but has found it difficult to find employment during covid times.
Christian began working with us as part of a work experience program that places job seekers in activities where they can build new skills, experience and confidence to move from welfare to work. He had struggled to find employment over the past few years as the job market had been severely impacted because of covid.
“I started at Church 4 Life in April 2022 thanks to Joblink Plus and I picked this charity because it’s location was close to my house. I started working 25 hours a week, and the Work for the Dole program paid me for the work I did, but I also had to apply for 15 jobs a month to try and get paid employment”
It wasn’t long before people started noticing that Christian was a hard worker, was keen to work and that he had a helpful personality. He would undertake tasks such as; Helping donors bring their donations in, taking full donation cages to the warehouse, unloading food deliveries, unpacking vehicles filled with donations and doing jobs for different warehouse departments.
“It’s not easy to get a job at 40 years old. I had previously worked with electricians, plumbers, as a parking officer and doing electrical tagging for schools. I have my forklift license too. A lot of places don’t want to hire me because of my age, but I want to get in, get my work done and I’m not interested in getting involved in drama”
Christian has also experienced difficult times, after losing 2 close family members. For many people, there is a period of time when managing their mental health needs to take priority and Christian has used this break from work to get back into a good frame of mind and find some purpose.
“The best part about this whole experience has been, its given me a purpose to get out of bed when I had no reason to before… The social side has been good because I have met lots of new people… and I have gained a lot of experience in the warehouse shed. It has been an eye opener in seeing the amount that comes in and the hard work that’s involved in keeping a charity running.”
Christian has used his time at Church 4 Life Charities to gain new skills and to meet new people. He has been great at introducing himself to all the different volunteers on each day of the week and having a chat with people as he works. His demeanour is happy and outgoing and he has stood out to his supervisors for all the right reasons.
“Church 4 Life has also given me a food hamper which was really helpful. It was like Christmas when I opened it”
We are glad that Christian has been impacted in many positive ways through his time with the charity. He has been a wonderful personality to have around and we hope to continue to see his smiling face around the warehouse, but if he gains employment else where, they will be lucky to have him!
