The Menz Shed is a great place for blokes to learn new skills and for those seeking work, they can learn skills that are valuable to employers. It’s also a community space for men to gather together to share their skills, have a laugh, and work on practical tasks personal projects or on a group project.

Image © GARO/phanie/Phanie Sarl/Corbis

Here’s an excellent article we found online and something we should all bear in mind when preparing for our next interview!

Having graduated from University of Canterbury in December 2014 with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) Erin Gough proved herself to be the ideal candidate for a newly created junior position at CLC: Access to Justice Advisor—Disability Portfolio. Catapult supported CLC and Erin’s application for MSD Mainstream funding for the position and the application was successful. In the same year that Erin started her job at CLC she was  appointed to our Board of Directors. She subsequently  moved to Wellington and was appointed the Human Rights Commission’s Disability focused Specialist.  An exciting journey for a very neat lady.
Read more about Erin on the HRC web site.
https://www.hrc.co.nz/news/erin-gough-my-accessible-journey/

Christchurch is currently in the middle of piloting a new government initiative known as Enabling Good Lives. Enabling Good Lives is being designed to assist people with disabilities and their families to consider what a good life looks like to them and how to achieve it.
The individual, with the initial support of an Independent Navigator, will have increased control over their life, systems, supports, services and funding. They will be supported to access mainstream services before speciality disability services and existing service providers will be encouraged to make processes more simple and flexible.
Catapult are very happy to support the principles of the EGL scheme and are working alongside the Local Advisory Group and with a number of clients, to ensure services offered by Catapult are both relevant and appealing.
To learn more about Enabling Good Lives, visit the Office For Disability Issues online at odi.govt.nz

Moving from unemployment to winning the New Zealand Disability Support Networks 2015 award for Excellence in Supported Employment Practice was a fast journey for Luke Kenmare (Iwi – Te Arawa, hapu – Ngati Rangitihi). Luke was a client of Catapult and was looking for paid employment. Seeing potential in Luke’s abilities and capacity to work as an Employment Consultant, Catapult offered him a one-year contract. His potential was soon realised, his experiences in having “been there and done that” as far as unemployment is concerned brought an extra dimension to his work. An example of his excellent work was the relationship he  built with the recruitment manager at Canterbury Linen Services, the relationship helped him to assist four of Catapult’s clients into paid work in this business. Luke’s ability to get a good understanding of client choices and aspirations enabled him to match the right people to the job. All of the people he  placed at Canterbury Linen Services have a disability of some sort, ranging from cognitive to mental health to Asperger’s.   Luke provided on-going support to them and the employer through regular visits and conversations.