Dylan's Story

I have my own Business called D Shredding Man, and I really LOVE shredding – “I am a Man Now.”

Those are the words of 17 year old Dylan, who has significant disability including Down Syndrome and Autism. His business has given him new opportunities for taking part in the workforce, earning money, building social skills and feeling like he belongs in his community.

Dylan and the people supporting him, including his Mum and Dad, service provider and peer support network, helped customise his business around his passion for shredding. As his mum Natalie describes “Dylan would sit around home and shred all day if he could, he just loves it“. The family recall how many people, providers and schools said that Dylan was too challenging to ever work. Dylan’s mum was also told the best thing for her to do was to put him in a group home, but with those words came more determination.

Dylan is paid above minimum wage for his shredding and with on-the-job support from his support worker conducts his business within a business from a range of workplaces, including at National Disability Services (NDS), where he shreds six bags of papers every Friday and delivers them to the RSPCA for animal bedding. This helps the NDS team who otherwise would need to spend time shredding papers themselves, and enables them to concentrate on the more intensive responsibilities of their work.

Thanks to some creative thinking, and identifying a job that would suit his skill set and interests, Dylan does real work, for real pay – just like his dad and brothers.

Shannon's Story

Shannon works part time and is a very athletic guy as he plays cricket and basketball on a weekly basis.

Shannon has an intellectual disability. He still manages to find the time to volunteer for different organisations such as Food Rescue. Shannon started volunteering at their warehouse a couple of years ago as a way to give back to the community. Shannon’s main task involves sorting fruit and vegetables. He completes these tasks with support from his mentor. He has also learned a lot of other valuable skills like punctuality, teamwork and how to build positive relationships. He progressively created strong connections which now go way beyond his weekly volunteering session.

Shannon is a man a few words and tends to use humour to communicate. While working at Food Rescue, he used to joke around with his mentor at first and soon after with other volunteers. Shannon progressively built rapport with the other volunteers. Some volunteers couldn’t speak English very well as they had just migrated to Perth and they were trying to make connections as much as Shannon. They all ended up getting along very well by mainly communicating with body language and laughter. The role of Shannon’s mentor was to encourage him to communicate with others and to develop his social skills without encroaching on these relationships.

After about 6 months, Shannon met a new volunteer. They formed a strong friendship and started to have dinner after their shifts at Food Rescue and even celebrated Shan’s birthday together at the warehouse.

In the meantime, Shannon became more independent in his role and didn’t need much guidance from his mentor. Shannon’s mentor slowly stepped back as his confidence and skills grew.

The next step for Shannon will be to initiate and plan more regular catch ups with his friends and to do his weekly shift with another volunteer as his mentor will ultimately phase out completely.

The social skills that Shannon has learned while in his volunteer position have assisted his part time job greatly. The right volunteering opportunity can be extremely beneficial as it can offer more time and space for personal and social development.