Working at Diversitat

Kathy is based at Diversitat Aged Support, and is often labelled their ‘right hand man’. She takes on a variety of roles including making assessments for potential clients, volunteer coordinator, student placement coordinator,  OH&S rep, co-ordinating the activities for the Geelong Active Diverse Seniors (GADS) – more recently labelled Social Supports group, as well as having staff report to her if any minor issues arise. Her initial impression of Diversitat was that it was a great place to work and her continued employment with Diversitat for the last nine years, demonstrates this belief. Kathy believes that Diversitat is a supporting, caring and obliging organisation towards the Geelong community. Her role has made her truly understand that everyone should have the opportunity to be welcomed in Australia.

She would therefore, if put in the position of being a world leader, want to change the attitudes of people towards others of different backgrounds and stop individuals from being so greedy.

Jeremy’s role involves co-ordinating and editing media at Pulse Radio’s, Pulse Media Productions and operates the cameras at The Pulse, for filming and interviewing purposes. He is also the LMS/Multimedia Support Officer where he helps develop e-learning programs for students. He also has a multimedia qualifications which includes digital design, graphic design and sound engineering. When he began at Diversitat three years ago, he immediately got the impression that it was a very friendly and approachable place to work, as everyone seemed very willing to help one another. Three words that came to Jeremy’s mind when asked to describe Diversitat were that it is a respectful, welcoming and overall, helpful environment.

If Jeremy could change anything in the world, he would give our youth more of a chance in society and put more money into our education services, to ensure people are educated enough to fill future jobs. When not working, Jeremy’s ideal place to spend time would be in Fairhaven, close to the beach, along the Great Ocean Road.

Nick has recently taken up the role of Team Leader of Community Services Training. His work includes supporting trainers to deliver our courses as well as being a trainer himself. He is responsible for addressing the needs of students and trainers in the Community Services, Youth, Disability, Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol qualifications. His first impression when commencing at Diversitat was that he was immediately impressed, “The atmosphere seemed lovely and it was obviously a busy, fun and co-operative work environment”. The three words that Nick believes represent Diversitat best are “diverse, progressive and supportive”.

His ideal world would involve co-operation among all people and a fairer distribution of resources throughout the world. Nick also works in community education on gender equity and the prevention of domestic violence. His favourite ways to relax and take time out of his busy schedule are to indulge his passion for trading in antiques and collectibles and spending time with his wife, five children and four grandchildren.

Taw Doh works as a Case Worker four days a week at The Hub and spends the other day working as a Community Development Worker. In his role as Case Worker, he assists clients that have a refugee backgrounds and have only been in Australia for a short period, by supporting them with their settlement in Geelong. When working as Community Development Worker, Taw Doh assists in wood work classes for one of the many programs held at The Hub, and provides basic computer training classes.

He feels that Diversitat is an incredibly interesting organisation and should be complemented for having staff with such diverse backgrounds. He views Diversitat as a supportive, inclusive and respectful organisation. Taw Doh would love to be able to help more disadvantaged people, who may have experienced war or severe trauma in their lives by providing them with more support to help them improve their lives for the better.

He believes Diversitat is doing a great job in providing for refugees that may not know our language very well or are unfamiliar with the services we can provide for them.

One of roles that Meril is responsible for at Diversitat is working from The Hub as the Divisional Administrator. This involves general administration tasks as well as managing and developing the IT systems at many of the Diversitat offices. He is also the Project Management Coordinator at the Geelong West Office, where he is involved in managing the client management systems and other IT projects as well as many other tasks.

He has worked for Diversitat for more than two years and states that the reason he has remained in the organisation is because his initial impressions of staff at Diversitat, as being a group of friendly, collaborative and lovely people, has proved true. Like many staff at Diversitat, Meril can’t emphasise enough how supportive of a community Diversitat is. If Meril were to be a world leader, his number one priority would be to bring about world peace.

In her role as financial counsellor, Julie works with clients that are experiencing hardships, possibly due to job loss or low income and discusses their options with them. This service that Julie and her team provide is free for any one in need of their assistance. There is also an advocacy component of her job, which gives her the ability to identify issues and advocate for change. One recent change that Julie advocated to government for, is the ability for motorists to make instalment payments for their car registrations throughout the year, rather than one lump payment each year.  This policy change is currently being implemented by Government.

Julie joined Diversitat because she knew it was a place that was supportive of people from all walks of life. Three words that come to mind when thinking about Diversitat are community, diversity and a welcoming place. If she had the power, she would want no one to have to live in poverty.

As Project Manager, Bridgette is responsible for managing Diversitat’s building projects. Bridgette’s role has her firstly developing concepts and ideas for a new building project. She then meets with architects to discuss the designing phase of the project, and organises how the project will be funded through the federal and state funding allowances. She also manages Diversitat housing and works on the management of the IT systems at Diversitat. Often people underestimate the breadth of Bridgette’s job as Project Manager. In her 10 years as an employee, she has found that Diversitat is a visionary, proactive and forward thinking Organisation. She believes that it continually demonstrates how non-traditional it is compared to other Not-For-Profit Organisations.

If Bridgette was put in a world leadership position, she would want to change the view that the media put across to the world regarding immigration. She would also like to see more women leaders.