If you have contacted Employability sometime in the last 2 years, it is likely that you would have come across the very lovely, Mr Forrest Campbell.
Forrest is our much-loved [British Columbian] Canadian native team member, who fell madly in love with and married a wonderful Aussie woman called Cassy. They went on to have two sons and now reside in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Forrest has a dual role in our team; Employment Coach working with other people with disability to make them confident jobseekers and helping place them in long-term meaningful jobs, and more recently begun working in the Building Employer Confidence team as a Delivery Manager, developing and delivering disability awareness training to organisations that would like to become inclusive to having PWD (people with disability) working alongside them.
He has a terrific laugh and is so passionate about his work, you can’t help but be in awe of his commitment.
In 2015, Forrest had a downhill skiing accident that resulted in SCI at c6/7 level. Now a quadriplegic and full-time wheelchair user, but don’t let that fool you – his sense of adventure and zest for joie de vivre has never waned. He is an adaptive mountain bike rider and instructor (1 of only 6 in Australia) and recently became the National Champion in adaptive downhill racing in the quadriplegic category! You can follow his adventures on Instagram @freewheelingforrest
Pre-injury, Forrest was an Electrician by trade, loved working with his hands and being on the tools as they say, in fact he worked for the same company for 15 years. Yet again proving how loyal and dedicated he is.
When asked what he loved most about his work with EmployAbility, Forrest simply said:
“My overall goal would be to keep breaking down the barriers that companies have when it comes to hiring people with disability. In my own experience, a bit of education would have gone a long way, so I know what it feels like for my clients. I like to think of it as striving to make “Disability Employment” just “Employment”.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves Forrest.
Thank you for choosing EmployAbility to work with.
When you’ve made that brave decision to put yourself out into the job market, email us at EmployAbility@scia.org.au to find out more about EmployAbility Employment training program or sign up via our website.