When asked what he likes most about working at Substation33, Bobbie-Joe replies: “Seeing smiles on everybody’s faces.
“If you see someone in a little bit of distress and you see someone not having a good day, I like to go and turn their day around and focus on the positives…
“Seeing the kids and staff completely do a 360 from not having a good day to just being on top of the world, it really makes my heart melt.”
Bobbie-Joe grew up in Dysart. As a kid, he loved mucking around at the dump taking things apart and fixing them. So when he was referred to Substation33 by Family Relationships Australia, he decided to give it a go. From the very first day, he was hooked.
“It was the best thing. It was so cool pulling things apart. I got to connect with other people, and I just loved how I saw their smiles when they came in to take things apart.”
“I started involving myself with everybody and giving everybody positive reinforcement and saying: You’re doing a great job. Hey, you’re doing amazing. You know how hard that is to do that? You’re doing a great job.
Curious about what else went on at Substation, Bobbie-Joe started to branch out, meeting other workers and involving himself with different projects including batteries, solar panels and road signs.
His enthusiasm caught Substation33 founder Tony Sharp’s attention.
“I talked to Tony and he says: what do you like doing? I said, look, I like doing everything you’re doing here. And then he kind of says, what would you like to learn? I said, well, how much are you willing to show me? And he says, how high do you want to jump?”
The answer was very, very high.
“I love it because there ain’t no mountain high enough that we can’t get to. Whatever goal Tony has set, then mate, I’m going to help him achieve that. He’s just shown me so much and given me a lot of benefit of the doubt.”
But Substation33 is much more than a workplace for Bobbie-Joe. A father of five children, aged one and a half to eight, Bobbie-Joe moved to Logan from Dysart to try to get shared custody of his kids after his children’s mother moved Logan.
“When I was going through the court case, it was very, very hard because I didn’t know anyone down here except within Substation.”
“Substation created the family that I didn’t have at that time. They were able to keep my mind stable. Last Christmas I spent alone, and that was really hard. But Tony was right there beside me, Asha was there beside me, and if I needed to cry with them, I was able to.”
