David is no Sleepy Monkey at work!

Production Team Leader, David Cooper is somewhat of a celebrity at the Business Solutions Southport site. As a true champion of choice, control and capacity building, David now has one more accolade to add to his impressive list: Highly Commended at the prestigious 2024 National Disability Awards!

Colleague and friend Emily Valiontis jumped at the chance to nominate David in the prestigious awards for his incredible work at Endeavour Foundation for over 30 years.

“What can I say about David? He has served Endeavour for over 30 years, and his jigs have created more accessible work for the Southport EFI team than anything else,” Emily said in her nomination.

His work has been nothing short of incredible. He’s simplified tasks, increased productivity, and most of all he’s helped people to reach their goals.

David beat over 150 entrants to be listed as a Highly Commended Finalist in the Excellence in Disability Support Work award. And it’s all thanks to his ground breaking work creating custom-made jigs to help employees complete tasks at the site.

So just how big of an impact has David had? Just ask his Sleepy Monkey team!

“David had a team with him while creating a bed jig for business client Sleepy Monkey,” Emily said. “We were engaged to pack their bedframe packs. David and the team were able to find out where the tasks became too complex and broke it down to make it more accessible.”

Emily said the impact it had on production was outstanding.

It went from being a job where there was no participation from employees we support, to 100% completed by employees we support at Southport!

Thanks to David’s jig-magic, the team went from completing 8-10 beds per month to 58 beds per month. But David’s focus has always been on the employee’s he supports.

“This jig has opened the doors for probably at least six or seven people here on-site that would never have done this job,” said David. “And it’s like a snowball effect because once they feel the confidence that they can achieve this then it makes them confident to try other things.”

Congratulations on your well-deserved accolade David. We are proud you are part of #TeamPossible!