As a current Youth Councillor, I chose the City and YO Bendigo as my workplace for Work Experience as I wanted to learn more about them. 

Here's my thoughts and reflections from the week! 

Monday 31st of March ✨😎🧐

To start off my week I met Leon (Youth Lead) who introduced me to the team and gave me a tour of the YO building before heading across to the Galkangu office to collect my pass for the day. 

Once I had received my pass we headed up to the third floor where the City of Greater Bendigo lives. I met Bec and some of the other team members from the Community Partnerships Unit and learned what role they have. 

After that, I spent some time with Jesse from YO, learnt about the FReeZA budget and attended the Trans Day of Visibility Flag-raising event, where we saw some of the Councillors and Youth Councillors. 

After the event I headed back to Galkangu to observe part of a Council Briefing with Bec before heading back over to YO to start my work experience article to end my first day.

Tuesday 1st of April 🦇🌳🤸‍♀️

The first thing I did on Tuesday was attend the Community Strengthening toolbox meeting where I learnt what their jobs are and how they run. Then I spent some time with a few of the members of the team including Elsa who talked to me about the Community Grants Program and Anne who talked to me about the City’s work with the Community Houses.

For lunch I went to a lunch & learn in Rosalind Park where I learnt about the bats in Rosalind Park. After lunch I headed back to YO to work on my resume with Leon which I really appreciated.  

Wednesday 2nd of April 🦋😎✨

This morning, I started my day with Jess who is an Access & Inclusion Officer. The first thing we did was attend an Inclusive Communities team catch up.  

After the catch up, there was a Healthy Communities and Environments morning tea where we heard from the Acting Director who shared achievements from the different team members, announcements and general updates. 

I spent the rest of the morning shadowing Jess. We went through an online disability support module which gave me a deeper insight on the social model of disability and went to cyber resilience outreach clinic, which was a workshop about identifying scams.

Jess shared more about her work in improving accessibility for people with disabilities. She showed me an article on neuroinclusion vs. disability inclusion in the workplace, and the South Australian Government’s Office for Autism website. I found the different approaches to inclusion between different state governments interesting. 

We then ended the day by going through a checklist to prepare for tomorrows Disability Inclusion Refence Committees meeting.

Thursday 3rd of April 🔥🌻🤩

Today was the day of the Disability Inclusion Reference Committee, which I was excited for. I started my day by going through a check list Jess had prepared for the Disability Inclusion Refence Committees meeting and a run through of the day. I then did another disability module on communication which I found extremely interesting. After that we headed downstairs to pick up the catering and finish setting up the room. Then it was time for the meeting!

To finish my day, I headed back to YO to work on my article and find out what’s on for my last day of work experience tomorrow.

Friday 4th of April 🍟🐡🥳

To start off my last day of work experience, I started to finish off my work experience article and finish my bats article. Caitlin from the youth team and I took some photos to add to my article.

We had an exciting lunch to celebrate my last day. Caitlin, Chelsea (also from the youth team) and I walked to the fish and chip shop and then brought them back YO. I tried a fried Mars Bars for the first time which was delicious.

I spent the afternoon getting everything finished and putting all my experiences throughout the week into this article. Chelsea showed me how the YO Bendigo website works and together, we got my articles published. 

I also spent some time looking over the YO Bendigo website for a disability audit, using everything I learnt from my time spent with Jess. I wrote down some notes on some things that could be improved in making the website more accessible for people with all abilities. 

To finish off my work experience, we went to Galkangu to say goodbye to everyone I met during the week. 

Overall, I have had an amazing week. I’ve learnt a lot about disability, inclusion, accessibility, the social model of disability, and a whole lot more. One of my highlights would be attending the Disability Inclusion Reference Committee meeting and a Council Briefing. I do recommend doing work experience with the City. It has been an amazing experience for me working with lots of new people in the Community Partnerships Unit.