Achieving goals

Bernadette is a friendly and outgoing young woman. Recently she achieved a great milestone. With support from lifestyle assistants, Bernadette has developed her life skills and knowledge of the world to have the confidence and ability to explore her local community.

Travel training is an important life skill. With an understanding of signs, cues and procedures to catch public transport, everyone can go to places they have always wanted to visit and learn more about their local community.

Learning how to use public transport was one of Bernadette’s main goals for life. Together with her support person from Miami Hub, she decided to catch the bus to get around the Gold Coast.

She purchased a go card and added credit to her account to make sure she had enough funds to get to her destination.

With one-to-one support from her lifestyle assistant, Bernadette waited eagerly at the bus stop for her ride to arrive.

When the bus arrived, Bernadette jumped on board. She remembered to swipe her card and then excitedly sat down to start the ride. On the warm and sunny day, Bernadette enjoyed seeing the many different places around the Gold Coast as a passenger on the bus. She watched people get on and off the bus and how the bus driver was alerted to stop the bus for exiting passengers.

After several trips on public transport, Bernadette is now more confident to travel on a bus, but always has support if or when she needs it. She can independently swipe her go card and is more willing to politely engage with members of the community during her travels.

With her newfound independence, Bernadette has chosen to explore many new places. She has visited the Gold Coast’s Regional Botanic Gardens and she is eager to explore more.

Bernadette challenged herself to learn new skills for independence. With support, she proved to herself that she has the ability to achieve her goals.

Find out more about how Afford Community Centres across Australia can support you to develop new skills to help you in life.