In a heart-warming tale of serendipity, Chloe finds her dream job aiding in the fight against blood cancer

Chloe is Autistic, and like so many Disability Employment participants she faced difficulties finding the right job. However, in a heart-warming tale of serendipity Chloe was offered a customised permanent part- time administration assistant position with the Snowdome Foundation in August 2022, aiding in the fight against blood cancer.

Chloe gets connected through work experience

Chloe’s journey to finding meaningful work started with the help of CVGT Employment Specialist Disability Employment Team (SDET). Enrolled in a Certificate II Work Education course with CVGT Employment partner Holmesglen, Chloe was eager to gain hands-on experience to successfully complete her studies.

“I connected Chloe to the Snowdome Foundation, an organisation dedicated to funding blood cancer research. It was there she completed an administration assistant work experience placement – which turned out to be the perfect place for Chloe to start her career,” Candice Latter, SDET employment inclusion coordinator and team leader.

A heart-warming naming connection to the Snowdome Foundation

“Not only did she impress the foundation with her work ethic, but her shared name with Chloe Rutherford, who sadly passed away in 2009 and was the inspiration for the Snowdome Foundation’s establishment, added a touching layer of connection and serendipity,” Candice says.

Creating a customised role just for Chloe

In collaboration with CVGT Employment, the Snowdome Foundation created a customised administration assistant position specifically tailored to Chloe’s strengths, interests and ability.

“We recognised Chloe’s talent and the positivity she could bring to their team so we worked together to make a role where she could truly thrive,” Candice says.

She’s part of the office now, she’s part of the team and she brings a really positive component.

Cathy Rhodes
Head of Operations and Finance at Snowdome.

Creating diversity in the workplace

Embracing diversity in the workplace has a positive impact on company culture, improves creativity, inclusiveness, and fairness.

“We adapted our onboarding process to help Chloe, but it wasn’t a difficult change or adaptation. It made us look at our onboarding process to see whether we could change it to fit people from all walks of life,” Cathy says.

“We also made our onboarding paperwork as simple as possible, and not too complicated to read or understand for future applicants.”

Chloe has made us pause and realise that sometimes we go too fast, and we have to slow down and make sure everybody is included and that we are going on the same journey together.

Cathy Rhodes
Head of Operations and Finance at Snowdome.

Providing ongoing job support to aid in learning and development

The transformative power of disability employment services extends beyond just connecting people to a job.

“We aim to go above and beyond to support participants like Chloe, even after their initial job placement. We continue to help participants through mentoring and learning opportunities. This contributes to an ongoing positive work environment for Chloe, her employer, and her colleagues,” Bree Mills, CVGT Employment manager of strategic partnerships corporate strategy.

“Chloe is such a great addition to the team, she’s just so positive in the office. We have a laugh; we love talking about all sorts of things,” Cathy says of Chloe.

“Chloe does an excellent job in the work that she does, and I love the fact that Chloe asks questions if she gets stuck, which a lot of people don’t like doing, people get embarrassed about saying that they don’t understand something but Chloe’s really good at that.”

We sent our SDET administration officer Jamie out to visit Chloe. Here’s what she had to say about working as an administration assistant.

Q&A with Jamie and participant Chloe

How are you feeling?

I’m feeling pretty good!

What is it like to work at the Snowdome Foundation?

It’s nice and flexible. There’s always a lot of different tasks to do – before you know it, the next day you’ll be doing something different.

What jobs/tasks do you do?

I do scanning, shredding, entering and checking information in Salesforce and filing computer files and some Excel work.

What is it that you like about this job the most?

I like the people and the kind of cozy area of it. And the flexibility, you don’t have to get everything done too quickly, just in a good time.

How has CVGT helped you on your journey in employment?

They set me up with eight weeks of work experience here which made employment possible. They’ve also helped me with paperwork to get paid and they helped me understand a lot!