News

Faye Hoult bids farewell to a 25 year career Faye Hoult bids farewell to a 25 year career
Tue, Aug 28 2007

Drouin resident Faye Hoult has bid farewell to a career that started as a temporary fill-in - and lasted nearly 25 years.

Faye has worked for the EW Tipping Foundation, first as a house cleaner, then as a disability support worker, since 14 November 1982.

She clearly remembers the day she started – a friend pulled up beside her as she was walking up the street and asked what she was doing that afternoon.

“They were desperate for someone to fill in the cleaning roster at their group house in Church Street, Drouin,” she recalls. “Twenty-five years later, I was still there!”

The EW Tipping Foundation works with people with disabilities and others who need support. In Warragul and Drouin, it operates several shared supported accommodation houses for people with disabilities, as well as offering respite and a range of other programs.

Faye says it’s too hard to pick the one thing she has enjoyed most about the job.

“It’s been great seeing people develop their independence and make their own decisions,” she said. “And the people we support have taught me a lot – they’ve taught me to be more tolerant and patient.”

Today, the focus in disability services is all about independence and people being able to choose how to live their lives. But that’s nothing new to Faye. It was always her philosophy that people with disabilities should be treated with respect and dignity.

“I like the changes over the years – for instance, that all the residents now have their own bedrooms and their own privacy. And they don’t call us “mum” any more, they call us by our Christian names. They can choose their own meals and the way their lives will go. It’s all about working with people, not telling them what to do.”

Faye has decided to finally retire so she can spend more time with her family of three grown children and four grandchildren, and to travel. But she knows she will miss her time at the Church Street house.

“It’s the type of job that you get a lot of satisfaction from,” she said. “I would recommend it to anyone – it’s very fulfilling and rewarding. Some of the things that people with disabilities can do can surprise you.

“It’s been a great 25 years of my life.”

ENDS

Further information is available by phoning Communications Co-ordinator Janet Granger-Wilcox on (03) 9564 1000 or 0409 029 298, or visiting www.tipping.org.au.