I've returned from maternity leave now and wow, it's definitely great to be back in the carecareers team!

While I very much enjoyed looking after our new arrival (Max), on a Full Time basis, I'm happy to be working on such a great project again too...all the while juggling my other roles as a mum, wife, daughter, friend and colleague.

Since I've been with carecareers I've seen it go from strength to strength. It's substantially increased its reach and improved on its success bit by bit.

While I was on leave so much was achieved, which is great news! There are even more people discovering the disability and community care sector as a rewarding career path, and many more employers are advertising with us.

Over the 2011 calendar year nearly 10,000 jobs were advertised on our website which was an increase of more than 111% from the previous year. And in 2011, 5,471 job seekers (to be exact!) registered with carecareers, which means 11,000 people are now registered with us.

Our team has expanded too. Our Project Manager, Mike, started mid last year and we have two additional Talent Officers, Lucy and Jen, who have joined our Irish friends, Patrick and Peter.

We also have two team members who are looking after the schools and university program which is called projectABLE. Jillian is the Marketing Coordinator for the project and Maeve is looking after the new digital components of projectABLE. Both have experience in the disability sector and are excited about encouraging students to consider the many and varied career opportunities within it.

As editor of carecareers my role is to look after the online side of carecareers, including the content on our website, this blog and our social media profiles, like Facebook and Twitter.

I do this so that you can learn about the sector and people with disability, search for jobs, share info and get involved; whether you're just discovering the sector, have been looking for a suitable job for a while, have been working in disability or community care for years, are searching for your own staff or are a client accessing a service.

carecareers is unique and we're all about recruiting people to work in the NSW disability and community care sector. We also want to share true insights into what it's all about so if you'd like to contribute please get in touch with me.

I'm looking forward to the exciting year ahead for carecareers and I'm definitely looking forward to watching our little Max grow, explore and laugh every day (just like he is in the photo below).

"I moved to Wagga Wagga in NSW around 3 years ago to support my partner in a career progression opportunity and to be closer to family. For me, this meant starting again with finding new employment.

"I got a transfer to Woolworths in Wagga and then tried telemarketing, which was not for me. I picked up our local newspaper one day and read a job advertisement for support workers. The thing that caught my eye was the heading 'Do you have life experiences?' I rang the contact number, discussed the position and applied for the job.

"As I had no idea what the role was going to be I researched 'community support worker' on the web and thought, hey I can do this! Until I started my training I didn’t realise how many hats a support worker has. It was overwhelming at first and it was a lot to take in, but after I settled in I realised that being a support worker was something that I really enjoyed..."

Read Ann's full carecareers story or learn more about frontline support roles in the disability and community care sector.

We regularly feature stories on the carecareers website from people who are already working in the NSW disability and community care sector or who are are completely new to it. They work in all types of roles too, from CEOs, to physios, marketing professionals and frontline support workers.

Our latest story is from Julie Walton, Conferences and Events Manager at National Disability Services:

"I’m a Conference and Events Manager at National Disability Services (NDS) and my typical day revolves around planning for upcoming conferences and events. My role is to work through the process of event management which includes seeking suitable venues, sourcing and liaising with contractors, marketing and sponsorship, delegate registrations and onsite management. To manage this, I have a comprehensive timeline which I constantly refer to and update to ensure that I’m on track..."

Read Julie's full carecareers story.

Today marks the official launch of the carecareers campaign in 2011! If you haven't already watched our award winning television advertisements, please check them out below.

You may also like to read our latest blog post from regular carecareers' blogger, Naomi James. Naomi is a manager at Lifestyle Solutions and she often utilises carecareers to motivate and inspire existing and new staff. She's written a post today in celebration of our first year in operation.