Shane Dillon’s five and a half years with YFS were some of the fondest in his professional career. Almost eight years removed from his tenure with YFS, Shane still credits much of his managerial style to his time with the organisation.
“I still talk about my experience at YFS to this day. It was certainly a formative period in my life.”
“The lessons that I learned at YFS made me the practitioner that I am today, and I’ve taken them into every role I’ve held since.”
Despite some early experience working with the Department of Communities as a Youth Justice Conference Convenor, major flooding in 2011 derailed many government roles, including Shane’s. After subsequently landing in an administrative position at an engineering firm, in mid-2012 Shane found himself feeling thoroughly unfulfilled
“14 months after I moved to the engineering firm my wife said to me: ‘you need to find something else. You’re not a very happy person.’”
“So, I sat down with a recruiter to look at my experience and skills. I remember he said: ‘I can’t find you a job.’ I asked why and he told me he only recruited for the engineering sector, and that I needed to be in Human Services because that’s where my passion is.”
Luckily for Shane, at the time he lived next door to the daughter of [then] YFS General Manager, Christine Allison.
“Chris would babysit my kids on school holidays. Her grandchildren and my children are of similar ages.
After passing his CV on in the hope he might receive some general advice about moving into the sector, he received a surprise phone call from Christine about an opening at YFS.
“Although I was specifically looking for something in the youth space, Christine said they were looking for a coordinator for a disability services program to develop community connections.”
“I was very upfront. I told Chris that I didn’t have any experience with disability support. I had never worked in that space, and I didn’t have any personal connection to disability. She was okay with that; she said she wanted somebody who saw the clients as people, rather than through the lens of their disability.”
Shane instantly fell in love with his work at YFS.
“At the end of my first week I told my manager Camila that it felt like I was going to be here for a long time. And I was.”
Shane’s proudest memory, and what he feels was a significant impact of his time at YFS, was his role in changing the culture around disability support.
“The biggest impact from my time at YFS would be changing the staff’s perception of working with our clients: seeing the person we were working with for who they were, as opposed to just someone who has a disability.”
“The change in culture from sympathy-based disability support to empathy-based support provides our clients with autonomy and control.”
“Camila and I were particularly interested in the idea of ‘dignity of risk’. Some people were really resistant to that kind of culture shift, but we found it so important to learn about what it looks like to support somebody to truly have choice and agency over their life.”
The opportunity at YFS to help build a team, culture, and a tailored approach to supporting clients is an experience that Shane feels incredibly grateful for.
“The thing that I really grew to respect about Camila was her ability to have really difficult conversations [where] everyone would still walk away feeling as though she actually cared, and that is what’s important.
“Ever since leaving YFS, I’ve been searching for that culture again. I’ve come to the realisation that the only way I’m going to find that again is if I build it myself.”
“I’m very proud of the fact that I worked at YFS.”
