Senator GALLACHER (South Australia) (18:46): I rise tonight to speak about a wonderful program, run by the Bedford group in South Australia, entitled Abilities for All. The Bedford group supports 4,000 people across South Australia who are living with disability or disadvantage. Further, the Bedford group employs over 800 people with disability in our state. Abilities for All is a jobseekers program. Led by Bedford and funded by the South Australian Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology, the program negotiates the use of community centres directly with the centres and forms partnership agreements with them. Across a number of community centres throughout the state, training at Certificate II level is available to Abilities for All participants in business, customer contact, community services, horticulture and retail. In June this year, I was lucky enough to have been invited to attend the Abilities for All graduation ceremony. I was able to see firsthand the pride these graduates had in their achievements. The ceremony was attended by their trainers, mentors, families and friends. I was eager to arrange a meeting with one of the Abilities for All trainers and mentors, Tricia Murphy, to learn more about the program and her role there. Tricia works from the Taperoo Community Centre. She currently teaches a class in community services, which has 19 people enrolled in it, and a Certificate II in business, with 17 enrolments. She spent 14 years working part time in community services, running her own literacy programs within other community centres, before she was offered a position at Bedford training. She has been an Abilities for All trainer and mentor since January 2009. The Abilities for All Program aims to provide a very important pathway for jobseekers living with disadvantage or disability. It targets individuals who are currently disengaged from school or work. The age range of the participants is 16 to 60. The role of a trainer and mentor can be challenging, but it is often a very rewarding role. One of the biggest rewards, in Tricia's own words, is: 'Actually seeing people change. They turn their lives around 360 degrees from the beginning of the training to the end.' Through this program some people who may have lost all direction find their way again. That is an invaluable gift that Abilities for All gives them. Of the challenges of being a mentor, Tricia notes that what they do often goes above and beyond their job descriptions, simply because it has to. Many of the participants need that extra bit of support at the end of their training. Unfortunately, the program is not funded for this. Tricia says that this is obviously a problem, because a lot of these people come from a background where they have had absolutely no support and they come into the program with a lot of personal issues. They come into the program needing to develop their motivation and to develop trust in and a rapport with their trainer. They then need the training; often they require follow up once they have finished the official part of the program. That is quite a lot to fit into a course which lasts between 14 and 16 weeks. Many of Tricia's graduates from the program will call her for extra support at the end of the program. She will often receive phone calls from past participants who have questions about how to fix up their resumes or for advice on what to say at a job interview. She often spends half an hour or more on phone calls like this. Alternatively, some past participants will arrange a time to come and see Tricia at the community centre. With these kinds of meetings she can spend up to an hour helping them with job applications, resumes, cover letters and interview tips, face to face. Tricia believes that the link with the community centre is what has seen the program run so well. Tricia says: We find that it's a link with the community that participants make. It just works so well. People connect with each other and they make friends. In Tricia's classes in the last year, she says that approximately 80 per cent completed their Certificate II and about 85 per cent went on to further study. Very importantly, around 60 per cent went on to find part-time employment. Around 85 per cent do an educational work placement and Tricia says that aspect of it is an essential part of the program because, quite often, that may be the only thing that they have to put on their resume. It gives them that push that many of them so desperately need. The Abilities for All graduation ceremony is held every June and is a very big deal for the participants, their families, friends, trainers and mentors. Tricia says it is a big deal because there are a lot of people with disability and disadvantage who have never completed anything in their whole lives. So for them to be able to participate in such a ceremony is an absolutely huge thing, and they feel so proud of themselves that they bring their family and their friends. It is huge. It is all over Facebook the next day. Taperoo Community Centre is a welcoming place. Many of the people who visit there feel safe and as though they belong. A lot of the students stay around at the centre even when they have finished class for the day and sometimes on days when they do not even have classes. That is really saying something about how the place makes people feel. The centre started out as a shell but has been transformed into a thriving and welcoming place thanks to a lot of hard work put into it by workers and volunteers—who are often ex-participants of Abilities for All—and of course current participants get involved as well. The gardens have been transformed. There are murals, mosaics and an array of other artworks by participants and volunteers inside the building. It has become a vibrant and colourful place. I would like to read parts of a case study of a graduate of the Abilities for All program. Daron's story has been told in the Bedford newsletter this month: My name is Daron and I am a 43 year old father. Before starting my Certificate II in Community Services I was not sure what direction my life was going. I have been suffering several health problems in recent years and have been homeless for the past two years. I was getting more and more depressed with life in general and had visited some very dark places in myself I didn't know existed. I had no home, my health was getting worse, I couldn't take my kids for access and had no qualifications. A future for me was not something I could see at this time...well not a good future anyway. After talking with my job network, my case manager arranged for me to meet with Tricia at the Taperoo Community Centre. My transformation had begun and I enrolled in the Abilities for All course. I wasn't sure what to expect from it and was a little nervous about whether this was for me. Turns out my concerns were soon eradicated by the welcome I received from the TCC family. I have renewed faith in my outlook towards the future for myself and my family and I'm hoping that I can do a Certificate III in Community Services next. I am still Daron, a 43 year old father but now I have faith, more confidence, a new sense of hope and know I will have a future my family and I can be proud of. I am now a volunteer mentor at Taperoo Community Centre. Without the Bedford Abilities for All Program I would be still standing on the station watching the train go past. Now I'm on the train and excited about the journey. Abilities for All is a program which should be celebrated and encouraged. I applaud Bedford, the organisers of the program, and the many trainers and mentors like Tricia who work hard and go above and beyond their job descriptions to make this program work and to make each and every one involved in this program feel that they can make something of their lives, no matter what their background or setbacks up until now.