54: Forget me not
Chorus Voices
Bill, 78, is a retired teacher of 36 years and now volunteers with Chorus. He teaches English as a Second Language at the Chorus Bull Creek Activity Centre.
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53: Getting our art on
Chorus Voices
We talk about all things art and community coming out of the Ability Arts inclusive art program in Mandurah, WA - from winning a sculpture award to the Selfie Portrait Exhibition and more!
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52: Christmas Voices 2020
Chorus Voices
In this year’s Christmas Voices Angela Johns, Mandy Waters and Judith Hatton join Dan Minchin and Louise Forster to dive into inspiring journeys of survival and recovery in 2020.
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51: Growing communities one garden at a time
Chorus Voices
What's it like to be a Chorus gardener? Pretty special actually.
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50: 50 years in the community
Chorus Voices
Episode 50 of Chorus Voices celebrates 50 years of Chorus in the community and, as it turns out, it’s our 50th episode!
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49: Teamwork: A circle of kindness
Chorus Voices
Chorus is a team of kind, caring people. In this episode Dan Minchin and Nikki Drury explore the relationship between teamwork and kindness.
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48: Home is more than a house
Chorus Voices
Krystyna likes to cook, garden and have fun with her housemate, Quack Quack 2. In this episode we learn about the journey and joy of supported independent living.
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47: A very merry unbirthday: Two more candles
Chorus Voices
In part two of Lex’s mental health journey we learn a thing or two about designing clothes for musicals as Lex takes the next step towards realising the dream of becoming a fashion designer.
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46: Men's Health Week: From darkness to colour
Chorus Voices
After an accident, professional cyclist Chek stopped eating and wanted to give up on life. One day he reached out and turned his life around.
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45: Chorus volunteers: A smile to deliver
Chorus Voices
During National Volunteer Week 2020 five Chorus volunteers take centre stage and talk about what volunteering means to them and the Chorus community. “The only thing that I can do is just give them a bit of time,” says Gary.
info_outlineChorus is a team of kind, caring people. In this episode Dan Minchin and Nikki Drury explore the relationship between teamwork and kindness.
Nikki Drury, Co-designer for the Chorus Fresh Approach project, has looked at how we can be kind and relational at work. Building supportive teams that can share ideas, work through challenges and have difficult conversations helps teams flourish.
But there are barriers to relational work such as time as funding.
“Sometimes having a cup of tea and a chat is much more valuable to a person than making sure the bed linen is changed,” says Nikki.
Support workers in the community can be quite isolated and Nikki outlines the importance of debriefing with their team. Getting together. Having a laugh. Sharing the challenging moments.
“Even, on paper, a fairly simple task like helping someone with the shower, if their context is so really difficult, that could be a really tough day for a Chorus support worker,” says Dan.
The Fresh Approach team ran experiments by creating “huddles” – virtual and real – to support strong relationships.
“Some people might be a little more shy and fall through the cracks in bigger groups of people,” said Nikki. “Having that contact with their peers was a really big win for a lot of people.”
Some of the people in the huddle experiment share their experiences.
“The hypothesis is that if we could make this a really routine way of working… customers’ experience and support would be enhanced, and that's probably something we need to get into thinking about,” says Dan.
Chorus is working towards making relational work commonplace - being kind, not saying yes to everything and managing boundaries.
“It's really brave of Chorus and us as a collective to make that decision that actually we want to shift back to the reason why we love to do this work and the reason why customers love us to be doing it,” says Nikki.
Credits
Podcast Hosts: Dan Minchin and Nikki Drury
Opening Voiceover: Ryan Burke
Opening Music: “Wattlebird” by Dylan Hatton Music
Producer: Judith Hatton
Audio editing: Matthew Clark
Special Thanks To:
Julie Briggs - Customer Contact administration
Angela Johns - NDIS Support Co-Ordinator
Stephen Hill – Support Worker Gardening and Home Maintenance
Coffee Cart Host
Jane Wittenoom - Fresh Approach Co-Lead
Jethro Sercombe - Fresh Approach Design Facilitator