Tracey is a perceptive woman. To realise her employment goals, she has utilised the local support from the team at Bamara who deliver services for the ParentsNext program.

By teaming up with Bamara, Tracey draws the comparison about caring for people and going the extra mile to help them up.

“I am a registered nurse, and that is the same idea also. You meet people when they might not be in the best of circumstances, you show that you’re there for them, and everyone is a lot happier as a result,” says Tracey.

Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula was Tracey’s home as a kid until she headed south to further her education and study nursing. She worked at Royal Darwin Hospital for some years then returned to Nhulunbuy.

That was after the brutal shrinking of the town, known as ‘the curtailment’. In 2014 Rio Tinto closed its bauxite refinery. Nhulunbuy’s population halved, businesses closed overnight and air links were cancelled. It was a very tough time, and Tracey moved back to Darwin without a job.

When she was referred to Bamara who deliver services for the ParentsNext program in Casuarina, she teamed up with her Support Mentor, Stacey.

“I just couldn’t recommend them more highly,” Tracey enthuses.

“I knew I wasn’t savvy on the computer. In fact, I was pathetic! I had a certificate saying that I had passed a course but I still couldn’t use it.

“ParentsNext linked me up with a computer course, and their course was absolutely outstanding. In fact, in the end, I rang head office at Bamara to thank them so much and tell them that I learned more from that than in the 16-week course I’d done previously which I paid for.

“Apart from the courses, if ParentsNext had not allocated me a phone, a laptop, time with a professional to show me how to use these things properly, I don’t believe I would have got a job.

“When I saw a position at a local medical provider I was sent a zip file with all the application stuff. Stacey spent literally hours helping me to put my paperwork together.

“She helped me extract the info and forms from the zip file, print it off, fill it in, scan it all, put it together in the correct format for HR, and send it back from my email address.”

Stacey has since taken up a casual employment role and credits the assistance from her Support Mentor Stacey.

“Stacey gave me so much time and I know that getting the job was the result of that,” says Tracey.

This means a lot coming from Tracey because this is someone who knows what it really means to care for others.