Tom began his journey with Community Living eleven years ago as part-time staff in residential services. He quickly realized his love for the field and took on a midnight position a year later, followed by an assistant position the year after that. Two years later and Tom moved up again, to a coordinator position with the same program.
Clearly a good fit at what was then Community Living Peterborough, Tom found that his past work experience in retail provided him with solid people and customer service skills. These skills turned out to be invaluable to his work at Community Living and in the Developmental Services sector, and continue to be so.
“I had some amazing mentors,” Tom tells us,” who quickly became friends. I applied my own outside of the box approach to supporting people in the program.”
In his fifth year, Tom realized that he was experiencing signs of burnout and returned to his assistant role.
“It was a tough decision at the time,” says Tom, “but recognizing and taking actions against the signs of burnout, whether it’s yourself or a teammate, is imperative in this field. The CLTH management team is highly aware of this and has provided a number of resources – from mindfulness training to self-care tips in the weekly newsletter to the employee assistance program and more – to support its employees.”
Tom is thriving again and moved up to a Life Share Coordinator position in the fall of 2022. He continues with Life Share today.
“CLTH gives us the opportunity every day in our roles to make someone’s day and put a smile on their face. I do this by bringing in treats or wearing funky socks. You never know what someone’s dealing with in their personal life.One minute you could be helping someone fill out an old age application and the next you could be providing information for someone to get their driver’s license. It’s very rewarding.”