Vocational Support Officer (VSO) Helen ran her own garden maintenance business in England – but when she returned to Western Australia, she was ready to get more out of her skills and experience.
“This sort of environment is a lot more rewarding than doing landscaping on the outside,” she said of her role as Horticultural Instructor at Boronia Pre-Release Centre for Women.
“You’re teaching and if the women can then go out and get work afterwards that’s an important thing, you’re making a difference to their lives.”
Now ten years into her job at Boronia and she hasn’t looked back.
“It’s such a beautiful environment to be in – and a lot of the hard work of the women here keeps it like that,” she said. “I like to have the interaction with the women, you see the change in them.”
With a background in garden design and extensive experience working in garden centres, she has grown an abundance of knowledge to pass on to the women – and it’s more than Boronia’s gardens that flourish as a result.
“I have a passion for what I do, and I would like to give that to the women here,” she said. “If I can get them into that real love of being outside and growing their own vegetables and plants, it gives a lot of them the confidence to go out and get their own jobs afterwards.
“I get a lot of satisfaction from helping, even if it’s just to make their time go a little quicker by keeping them busy.”
And the longer she has remained in her VSO role, the more satisfaction it yields.
“Being here for as long as I have, I have a lot of success stories that have come through,” she said. “It can be challenging, but I’m up for a challenge and I get a lot out of it.
