Finding meaningful work in her home town had been a struggle for Samantha McIntyre until a disability support service stepped in.
Samantha, 28, and two other workers head to the hospital in Rochester every Tuesday to clean work cars and complete a range of outdoor cleaning roles.
They are helped by a supervisor from Echuca-based disability support service, Vivid.
"We get the equipment out of the cupboards, we set it all up and then we just start the washing process," Samantha said.
"I'm good friends with my other workers, Alex and Aaron ... we've got some common interests."
Nearly 22 per cent of Campaspe Shire residents live with a permanent disability while another 6 per cent live with a temporary disability.
The latest employment figures show Australia's unemployment rate is at a 50-year low of 3.5 per cent.
Many sectors and businesses, like the hospitality industry, are struggling to find staff.
Vivid business development manager Andrew Thomson said the organisation had started a partnership with Moama Bowling Club to get clients into hospitality roles.
"That's a structured program with learning life skills; everything from presenting yourself at work in a proper manner in terms of making sure you're dressed properly clean and tidy to resume writing," he said.
"It's a real guidance, slow approach on what it's like to enter the workforce."
Work for the better
Samantha's mother Trish McIntyre said the approach had been a game-changer for her daughter.
"The opportunity for her working in her own community and meeting other staff members at the hospital, that social interaction with people that she can see down the street and say hi to has been really good," she said.
"I think it's really good for her to get out and about, have a bit of self-worth, earn some money and work hard."
Vivid has developed work crews in outlying towns such as Rochester and Kyabram to remove the need for clients to travel to Echuca.
Mr Thomson said the growth of the program came after the service was approached by families.
"We then approached a number of businesses and said 'we've got some support employees that are interested in doing lawn mowing or garden maintenance', and we worked with a couple of the real estate agents in Kyabram who provided us work," he said.
"They're the face of Vivid in their own communities and people are starting to, obviously look at us as a viable option for many different contracts."
He said it was important to give clients an emplyment link in their own communities.
"Those people would normally have had to travel to come to Vivid, they've got a full day's work in their own town, and they get a sense of pride because they tell people what they've been doing for the day," Mr Thomson said.
Finding meaningful employment
Mr Thomson said his organisation worked with clients and their families to identify their workforce goals.
"If you went back 20 years, employment for people with disabilities was, to put it bluntly, the jobs that no one else wants to do," Mr Thomson said.
"These jobs now are jobs that need to be done in the workplace, but it's an area of the business that isn't getting focused on because of the labour shortage."
He said clients were doing meaningful work that made a difference to that business.
"That business then can see the worth of our guys in a number of ways," Mr Thomson said.
"But it's respectful work. It's good work for people to do."
Client Jason Alan, a rev head who loves attending car shows, has been working at Echuca Kia since March 2021.
"I pressure wash, and if the cars are really dirty or rain on them or something like that, then I just soak them, wash them off and then chamois them," Mr Alan, 24, said.
"I like doing cars sometimes at the back, unpackaging the new ones."
Kia principal dealer Duane Johns said hiring a person with a disability was not something that had crossed his mind until he was approached by Vivid.
"They said we've got this really good, young guy at Vivid, that's really into cars, he lives and breathes cars," he said.
"I said 'I'll entertain the idea' and then it sort of went from there."
He said Mr Alan had shown that people who had passion and drive in their job were going to be good at it.
"Jason's an example of that, whether a disability or no disability and it's probably something we don't take as much consideration into when we're advertising for roles to be filled," he said.
"If the path can keep going on the same trajectory that Jason's showing us here today, there's every opportunity, it could lead to full time employment.
"People will look up and say, well, if Jason can get full time employment, then I can get full-time employment."
