Bunbury pitches in for AccessAbility Day

Retro Chic Secondhand owner Dale Bromley recently provided work experience to Brodie Richter as part of AccessAbility Day, which coincided with National Disability Awareness Week. 

The initiative also aligned with the 25^th anniversary of International Day of People with Disability. 

Mr Bromley, whose store has been open for the past two-and-a-half years, has continuously provided work experience for clients of non-profit disability employment service provider Great Southern Personnel. 

Mr Bromley also served as Great Southern Personnel’s employment coordinator. 

He said AccessAbility Day gave people with disability a chance to prove themselves in the workforce. 

“It’s a Federal Government initiative designed to give a person with disability a go at a one-day experience with employment,” he said. 

“Bunbury is one of the trial places, there’s about three or four in the country.”

Mr Bromley, through his store and Great Southern Personnel, strived to give people with disability the chance to have a go at retail. 

During the first week of December, the store owner took on ten people from Bunbury through work experience. 

He was confident the AccessAbility Day program would deliver long-term economic and community benefits. 

“It makes you realise that people with disability can work and are able to do it and be employed,” he said. 

“It is very important for employers to realise that people with disability can be employed and be quite productive.

“It’s important for businesses to be involved in this sort of thing so they can also see that a person with disability is not as worrying as they think.”

Mr Bromley said he would employ more people with disability in the future. 

Brodie Richter took part in work experience at the Homemaker Centre establishment on Friday, December 8 and said he had enjoyed learning new skills. 

More than 190 businesses and over 360 people with disability took part in the AccessAbility Day program this year.