Amanda’s goals when she left school were to make sure she never lost touch with her closest friends, develop and keep new safe friendships, and have valued employment in the local community. Amanda only has 6 hours of support a week. However she now has a job two days a week in a local business, works one shift a week at Lagoon Creek Café and Function room, and has an enduring and close circle of friends – who are now looking at starting up their own hobby business!
Amanda’s family and school helped her get a job and Better Together support her in the valued role she has in hospitality at Lagoon Creek Café and Function Room. Better Together have also been supporting her to safeguard long term friendships by assisting her to establish her own circle of friends.
The aim of this was to support and maintain friendships that Amanda had established in her school years and to give everyone strategies to ensure they could continue to maintain strong enduring friendships.
During this time Amanda’s friendship circle did some learning together around self–esteem, resilience, safe relationships and safety. They also focused a lot on doing things that other people their age do when they are spending time together. This included playing recreational sport together, bush walking, rock climbing, museums, art galleries, seeing live music, going to Markets, restaurants, picnics, barbecues, swimming at the beach and gourmet cooking.
Amanda and two of her friends from her circle of friends have been particularly interested in and enjoy cooking. Enough so, that they are going to look into the development of a small hobby business making and selling cookies, muffins and cupcakes.
Amanda and her two friends will combine some of their support hours so that their Better Together Lifestyle Coaches can support them to develop this great business idea. This will include assisting then with developing a business plan and pathway, meeting with relevant people with business knowledge to mentor them, establishing a work environment and times, doing all the legal stuff, marketing, and of course – MAKING COOKIES MUFFINS AND CUPCAKES.