Peter works at Christabelles, Merrimu’s gift and homewares shop in Bacchus Marsh and at the Hub in Melton.The hubs are located within the community and are used as a place to assist people in connecting to vocational, employment, learning and community opportunities.One of Peter’s goals is to secure a job and he has been busy learning new skills to help him get work ready. He has also been working with the Unibees program to help improve his reading and his maths skills.
“I like learning at the hub as I do lots of different things and have learned how to be more independent,” he says.
Peter works really hard at Christabelles. He likes working in the shop and enjoys serving customers, stocktaking, handling money and gift wrapping. He says he feels more confident from working there.
“I like Christabelles the most. I want to get a job in a shop. I am proud that I can use the cash register. One thing I really like is counting money. I like serving the customers, wrapping up the things and putting them in bags for people,” he says.
One of Peter’s goals was to become more confident in a group setting and feel more comfortable making new friends as he likes his own space and sometimes finds it hard to be around other people.
He has done very well working towards this goal and says that his favourite thing is coming to Merrimu to see the new friends he’s made.
“I want to get a job next but I would also like to stay at Merrimu for a long time as Merrimu has really helped me.”