This article was written by Alice Misty and her Mum - 2020

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roundsquared member, Alice Misty, is 19 years old.

Even before she left high school, she was bursting with enthusiasm to be an employed member of her community of Lismore, on the far north coast of NSW and Alice Misty gained employment as a part-time waitress at local café Flock Espresso and Eats.

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On leaving school Alice negotiated to increase her hours with the café and is developing her hospitality skills. However, for Alice Misty to progress in the industry, she needs to continue to upskill. roundsquared’s innovative approach to managing NDIS funding to support individual goals has afforded Alice Misty options to amplify her already established work connections to become more qualified, more confident and more employable.

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Read on to discover how Alice Misty, her family, her support worker and roundsquared worked together towards Alice Misty’s goals.

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In Alice Misty’s NDIS package she received School Leavers Employment Supports (SLES) funding to allow her to build the skills necessary for greater participation in employment. She and her mum Jodie were looking for a more ‘bespoke’ model to support Alice Misty in her employment goals.

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Over the past two years Alice Misty has earned a reputation in Lismore as a dedicated Flock staff member, not to mention notoriety as a performer with Sprung! Integrated Dance Theatre and volunteer usher for Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA). It wasn’t going to be the best use of resources to hand Alice’s SLES funding over to an employment organisation that had no genuine contact with Alice Misty nor with the organisations she is employed with. Alice Misty has a well-established network of support workers in the Northern Rivers region who are dedicated to assisting Alice to kick goals by finding creative pathways and thinking outside of the square. So, with this solid support, her family decided to plan manage the SLES funding through roundsquared. They had some clear goals to work on and this is a success story.

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Recently Flock Café became licensed and all staff were asked to obtain their Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) certificate. Alice Misty’s SLES funding enabled her to employ her support worker, Kate, to seek out an appropriate online RSA course and support Alice Misty as she worked through the modules. For around seven weeks, one day a week, Kate and Alice Misty read the materials together, discussed real-world examples of each scenario, and Alice developed a robust understanding of the role of an RSA trained employee in a licenced venue. On completion of the theory modules, Alice Misty was required to deliver three role play videos of herself negotiating difficult customers. She and Kate wrote the scripts and filmed them, revealing Alice to be competent in the learning. On the 4th May 2020 Alice Misty was awarded her RSA.

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Alice Misty gained a remarkable sense of achievement for the positive outcome of her hard work, and her community responded with resounding enthusiasm. Hundreds of community members congratulated Alice when Flock made the announcement on Instagram that Alice was awarded her RSA certificate.

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Alice Misty’s family are very grateful to Flock Café for their vision and inclusive workplace; to the Lismore community including organisations NORPA and Sprung! who have elevated Alice Misty’s social engagement; Kate for supporting Alice Misty in achieving her goals and Bridget from roundsquared for talking us through alternative options for use of SLES.

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So, what’s next? Alice Misty and Kate are about to start work on gaining their First Aid Certification. Watch this space.

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