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Adelaide rehabilitation consultant Aboriginal Achiever Award finalist
28 March 2011
Adelaide CRS Australia Rehabilitation Consultant Sasha Houthuysen was a finalist in the South Australia Channel Nine Young Achiever Award in the Office for Youth Aboriginal Achievement Award category. The awards dinner was held at the Adelaide Hilton on Saturday 26 March.
Sasha was nominated for her contribution to the Aboriginal and broader community, in particular in her role as a rehabilitation consultant at CRS Australia on Grenfell Street, Adelaide.
CRS Australia, Acting General Manager, Carl Princehorn, says, ‘We’re very happy to hear Sasha was a finalist for this award. Sasha has a passion for social justice and a desire to help her community. This makes her an ideal team member to help our job seekers with a disability, injury or health condition to get and keep a job.’
In this role Sasha works with a range of individuals, but her background ignites a particular area of interest.
She says, ‘My passion and background is on youth and Aboriginal issues. When I work with Aboriginal job seekers I bring a level of comfort and understanding; we can talk about our mob and I can listen to their story, which is important in helping them feel comfortable with the service.’
‘I want to work more closely in engaging young Indigenous job seekers to help them transition into work. It’s such an impressionable time in their life and there is so much potential if supports, like those CRS Australia offers, are put in place for these young kids to achieve.’
Sasha also offers valuable assistance to her colleagues. ‘I work with my non-Indigenous colleagues to assist them in understanding the Aboriginal view and other cultural issues that may arise for our job seekers. I offer liaison services between them and their Indigenous job seekers and link them to my community networks.’
‘I think the work I do does make a difference in people's lives by helping job seekers to get into employment. It means they can provide for themselves and their family, pay the bills and have greater access to health care to support their disability, injury or health condition. It gives people life choices which in turn empowers.