Staff Update – Julia-Grace
Hi everyone,
Halfway through the year already! AJs have been hard at work with various jobs this year. To name a few, they vary from working on toolboxes for Mainland Fasteners, counting play money for Every Educaid, packing lip balms for ProKiwi, putting together the clamps and screws for Aucom, shredding newspaper for Orana Park, assembling Modular packs, making up screws for Bremick, or putting together magazines packs to post for Caxton.
As some of you may already know, we have also been working with the guys on their goal sheets. These sheets give a summary of what guys do while they are at AJs, and what they like about both work and activities they take part in. All the staff have been discussing and working on these sheets with the guys one-on-one. We have also been discussing with them, whether there are any goals they would like to work towards with AJs, or anything they would like to be doing with us that they aren’t already.
Every Monday I take a group out bowling. I take three guys, Ayden and Ross come every week and our spot is usually filled by Alex, Eddy, Laurel, Harley, Daniel or Craig B, who come approximately once every two months. For morning tea, they usually pick a soft drink, except for Ayden who likes a small juice instead, and they all get to share a bowl of curly fries. I have found that they particularly enjoy beating me, as well as when I get gutter balls during the game.
Throughout the week I take several F.O.C.U.S sessions. FOCUS is acronym for Fitness Outcomes Commitment Upbeat Setting Goals. At the start of the year, we discussed what would be a good goal to work towards during this year and then based the sessions around those goals. On a Monday afternoon, the guys have relatively short sessions, with a tendency to focus more on moving around and having a break from work. Matty likes to pick an activity using the cups, which can be bowling the cups down with a ball, or throwing a ping pong ball into them. Joseph also likes cup bowling and often picks that or goes for a walk. Ben M also enjoys the cups; he likes throwing the ping-pong ball into them. Paul S and Jeremy usually pick the Blazepods, where four light pods are on the wall and they hit the one that lights up as fast as they can before time runs out.
On a Tuesday for FOCUS, Kaine often likes to go for a walk down to the motorbike workshop. If he doesn’t want to do that, he likes to go looking for lime scooters, to occasionally bring them back to AJs, or go on a bus ride. John N uses his FOCUS time (once a fortnight) to play solitaire with myself as his assistant; his recognition of the cards has improved over time.
Once a fortnight Ben N-F and Harrison plan or film their YouTube Pokémon Show. They both come in with lots of ideas during our planning sessions and enjoy their time in front of the camera. Both are quite understanding about the editing process taking some time and get very excited once the videos are finally uploaded.
Tevin and I take a group of six to Basketball on Tuesdays. Samnang, Jack, and Kirwan like to come every week and others who like to come now and then are Harley, Justin, Cameron, Cara, Nick F, Laughie, Ben N-F, Sam T and Clement. We work on various skill drills and then like to finish with a short game where they team up and play against the staff, they love a bit of gloating when they beat us.
On Wednesday Anthony has his FOCUS session. He likes starting off with a walk and having a bit of chat. When we return, we go through other exercises including planks, squats and press-ups. His favourite part is the earth-bending section, based on earth-bending from the TV show Avatar Legend of Aang. We found that they were based on martial arts, and work on these drills both practically with techniques and creativity, with fire-bender assailants he has got to get past.
Alternating Wednesday’s Daniel, Jack and Harrison work on their film project. They have been working on it for a long time but are still dedicated to finishing it. They created the story and are part of all the processes when making it. The other Wednesdays Alecia and Lyric chose what they like to do, their next thing they want to do is to bake cookies for the AJs morning tea.
Helen has her turn for FOCUS on Thursday. She likes to pick Blazepods, a walk, or a Pokémon Go walk. She often does multiple rounds of Blazepods and likes to catch multiple Pokémon when we do those activities. After her session she likes to get a Pokémon print out to colour in.
Thursday afternoons we have dancing. Ana, Georgia, Alex and Biddy are the regulars, with Helen and Laughie sometimes opting to join in too. Ana enjoys Katy Perry, Georgia picks songs from musicals, Biddy’s taste varies, and Alex often picks songs he has recently heard on the radio.
On Friday, Oscar likes to go for walk around the block for his FOCUS session. Whether it is cold or warm, this is the activity he is determined to do. Hamish works on physio exercises then likes to go for a walk. Liam chooses to run around the block (if the weather is good) and always puts in a great effort. Clement chooses between Blazepods, Boxing or Rowing for his session, often the rowing becomes a race between us. Harrison and Jeff like to do their sessions together (Clement will often join them too). They have chosen to work on football skills and cricket skills during their sessions this year.
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