I wanted to write about a typical day for me at work as it demonstrates the variety and reality of my type of role, as a Support Worker in the sector.

I’m going to focus on Mondays as I do a few different activities on Mondays. On arrival at work, our staff members first have a morning meeting. We discuss what is on our rosters for the day and any changes that need to be made.

I then organise the money side of things for our clients which requires me to get money out of the clients’ float for their activities. This usually takes about half an hour. At approximately 9.30am and after the clients’ meeting, I take four people outside for a few activities. We do some watering, clean the bird bath and sometimes a little weeding.

Our next activity is sculpture design. We are in the process of making sculptures for a maze in a park in West Wyalong. The clients that I work with on Monday morning design the sculpture for our volunteers (and other clients) to make on Fridays.

I encourage our clients to draw the design so that we have a visual for Friday. I always forget to check the time so I get a staff member to gently remind me that it’s time for morning tea - all of this before about 10am!

After morning tea, I take four clients down to the art room. We do art and craft until lunch.  I offer equipment and provide different mediums so that our clients can produce work for our annual art show. Sometimes I have enough time to tear paper envelopes or cut plant fibre to prepare for paper making on Tuesdays.

After lunch, I assist one client to clean the kitchen. We unload the dishwasher and usually wash up by hand - I think it’s a lot quicker! We then clean the benches and empty the bins before going onto the next activity.

In the afternoon, I have another art and craft session with a different group of four clients – one of the clients is a student from a local school.  At the end of the day I’m in the office again, checking receipts and balancing the clients’ float.

My day sounds very busy but that’s the way I like it. I don’t like to be sitting still for too long. We have a great range of activities on offer and I enjoy trying different things.