For Grace, being employed in the Defence Assistance Program (DAP) as a Defence Service Assistant (DSA) has been completely life-changing!
When Grace started at DAP Robertson Barracks in the Northern Territory, four years ago, she was suffering greatly from a lack of confidence after negative experiences in workplaces and in the community.
Grace’s mother had recently passed away unexpectedly, and with the loss of her mother Grace also lost the empowering support she previously relied on at home.
The DAP Darwin team led by Katie Tonkin have partnered with Grace to help her restore her self-confidence, self-acceptance, and resilience both at work and outside of work.
Team Coordinator, Katie Tonkin shared, “Through regular meetings, discussions, and goal-setting exercises, we helped Grace identify her strengths, overcome obstacles, and acknowledge her potential. A big part of what we do is helping people to be ‘job ready’. It is often not about a task outcome but the support we give to someone to feel confident to communicate about and perform a task.”
Grace said the DAP team has helped her learn more skills and believe in herself.
All my life I always had Mum and Dad talking for me, so now I’m the one who can have a voice and put myself out there. I’m able to go to my workmates or my Supervisor and say I can’t do this because without my family I’m very timid. I don’t want to lean on anyone else, but the team told me we are all together, we help each other we learn. With Katie and the Team Supervisors I always feel nice, they see what I can do when I don’t see what I can do, I’m very grateful. They’ve helped me believe in myself and be strong in my voice
Katie said, “The culture of support Grace experiences from the people she works alongside in Defence, particularly a handful of incredible women from the Base Management team, has also had a big impact on improving Grace’s self-confidence.”
Grace works three days a week at DAP and has progressed from simple to more advanced administrative tasks along with customer facing work in a Robertson Barracks Café.
Grace says the work she is doing at DAP has helped her with time management and structure.
Whether I’m working in the Café or Office, every day there is always something I learn and grow.
I like being independent and stable. I’m cooking by myself now. I used to bring takeaway now I cook for myself and I’m organising my NDIS meetings.
I love that people at work love me to believe in myself and believe in what I’m saying and doing and be understood. The team is so unique and in its own way it helped me to build confidence, build structure and be independence, and have my own voice.
With Grace’s growing confidence the team encouraged her to seize other opportunities. Grace gained great inspiration and sense of connection through her participation in the 2022 and 2023 Pacific Emerging Leaders (PAEL) Summit in Canberra.
We went to Parliament House and talked to 75 politicians. The main point was to gather and talk about issues we have as young people. It was so amazing and made me go back to Darwin thinking, you know what I am doing now, I’m going to keep doing it because maybe it will lead into something.
Grace also accepted an invitation to speak at the National Disability Services 2024 International Women’s Day event in Darwin.
With the support of the DAP team, Grace is currently enrolled in a Diploma of Arts at Charles Darwin University. Plans are also in progress for Grace to complete a traineeship and Certificate III in Individual Support (Disability) through Endeavour Foundation in her DAP workplace.
Before DAP, at school, when people would say “Grace what would you do after school?” I would be so down and very negative and not have belief in myself, I’d think, look at me not many would want to take on someone with disability and I couldn’t meet people. And then I found this job and it has made me prouder of who I am and to want to make a difference. I would like to work as a motivational speaker and work in the community for people with disability.
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