We’d like to welcome George Gribbin to our team at Catapult. George has taken up the role of lead Employment Counsellor in our Work-Focussed Anxiety Counselling Service after Maree left to increase her private practice. George has experience as a counsellor with anxiety, sexuality, stress and relationships. George previously worked as a high school guidance counsellor and at Youthline as a phone/ text counsellor. George is Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) trained, and is using this to help clients’ better manage their anxiety in relation to employment. George loves his music and has an interest in music therapy, has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Education Counselling and is in his final year of a Masters of Counselling.

Catapult are delighted to have won the Champion Charity Small Enterprise Award in the Champion Canterbury Business Awards 2016! We’d like to thank the Business Awards for including a section for charitable organisations, and their recognition that ‘not-for-profit’ organisations do need to make an sustainable income to be able to provide their services. Thank you also to Rātā Foundation and The Press who sponsored this section. Credit for this award must go to both the staff of Catapult, who work incredibly hard to provide employment services to often very vulnerable people, and to the trustees, who generously give their time, guidance and governance. Catapult’s founder and patron, Kevin Blogg, also deserves a great deal of credit for his vision 12 years ago of setting up a supported employment service for people with disabilities. Catapult has worked with hundreds of Canterbury employers over the past few years. We are proud to say that Canterbury has a growing number of employers who see the abilities a person has, rather than any disability, and who employ a diverse range of people in their businesses. We welcome more employers to join with us in helping get Cantabrians into work. The people who come to Catapult for our services put their trust in our ability to provide them with excellent service — this award validates that trust.

Catapult Employment Services are pleased to announce that we are one of the finalists in the Charity Section of the Champion Canterbury Business Awards. To see the work we do, you can view on-line videos here and here.

Our cleaner Shane recently celebrated his 21st birthday with us. He was delighted with the driving lessons we gave him but not so fussed on the toiletries! Shane has been cleaning up after us for just over one year and has become a valued team member.

Learning skills to reduce anxiety, increase calm and self-belief are some of the benefits the graduates of our Work Focused Anxiety Counselling are discovering, describing the service as ‘the best thing I’ve done’, ‘enjoyable’, and ‘enlightening.

Thomas (not real name), swearing and cursing, arrived at Catapult very discontented, having had knock back after knock back in his job search. His medical diagnosis of ADHD (inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development) was exhibited in his aggressive approach to our service. Thomas was aware of the way his condition affected his behaviour and he suggested he would like a position that would leave him physically and mentally tired at the end of the day. While working with Thomas, we found that he had done some work experience while at school with a Brick and Block laying company. The company was identified and the owner, who remembered Thomas being a good worker, agreed to have a formal interview with him. Thomas started work the very next day and was enrolled to complete a Site Safe Passport. With some support from both the training organisation and Catapult staff, he successfully completed the passport. That was in February 2014. Two years later, in February 2016, all Thomas’s hard work, commitment and reliability paid off and he was rewarded with the offer of an Apprenticeship with his employer. Persistence and patience has paid off for the employer, who now has a valued employee to contribute to his business, and for Thomas, who has a job which he enjoys and a good working future ahead of him.