“Enjoy every moment, celebrate every achievement no matter how big or small and remember to always reflect on your journey because it is amazing to realise how far you have come.”

Tiah first joined the Autism Initiatives team as a Support Worker. Tiah was 18 when she started in her first role with us in 2015, and since then, she has had the opportunity to progress into senior and management positions across the organisation.

Tiah shared:

“Autism Initiatives has given me the opportunity to learn and develop in my career at every stage. I have acquired the most knowledge while working alongside autistic people and have been able to enhance my skills through the difference experiences within my career.”

Throughout her career journey, Tiah has achieved multiple qualifications and awards, including a Level 4 Teaching Qualification, Level 5 Positive Behaviour Support and she also undertook additional training and assessment to become a Principal Instructor.

As a result of her hard work, Tiah was awarded Runner Up Instructor of the Year in 2022 at the Loddon Training conference and Runner Up for Best Practice in 2023. In her current role, Tiah is working as a Group Coordinator in the practice team.

Tiah emphasised:

“Working alongside the people we support and helping them to improve their quality of life are my favourite parts of working at the organisation. Making an impact and seeing people achieve their goals after difficult experiences keeps me driven.”

We asked Tiah what she feels is the best part of the Autism Initiatives approach, and she shared:

“Autism Initiatives is about seeing people as human beings. The focus is about getting the best for people, however that may look. I feel the organisation shows a true commitment to that and to providing homes that are for a lifetime.”

To help inspire potential candidates for practice roles, Tiah shared her top tips for the recruitment process:

“I’d encourage people to be themselves when applying and interviewing, to show the qualities that will make others enjoy being around them. Sometimes, the best people for the role are people who may never have worked in support work before, but are willing to spend more time getting to know the people that they’re working with, which helps to give better quality support.”

If you feel inspired by Tiah’s career journey and are interested in working at Autism Initiatives, please browse our current vacancies here.

We look forward to hearing from you!