Meet Our team!!
Ignite is blessed to have the best team in town! Below are a few snapshots of our lifestyle coaches in their natural habitats.... working with people to change their lives. We are blessed to have the most dedicated, caring, forward thinking and creative team. This team comes with years upon years upon years of experience in community services in many different areas. Each person brings something unique to the team so that we are able to match the right staff to your need and want every time. We don't just support you, we support you in your circle. We are there within your family, doing what we can to make a difference. We go above and beyond every day, every shift with every participant. We can help you with access to things like companion cards, access to consumables, disability parking permits. To help you learn and access anything else you need to make your life easier!
We don’t just employ anyone, we are very selective in our recruitment process and it is important that we match our staff and participants perfectly to get the right outcomes! When we interview, we ask people personal stuff. Like what do you do for fun, what are your hobbies and what skills do you have that you might be able to share with others? What are your passions in life and what are your goals, what have you achieved in the last few years? We ask these questions because we want a certain type of person. We want staff with a passion and drive for success, this drive will only help you achieve your goals with the right worker. We are a believer of teams of people around our participants, everyone brings something to the table for the best possible outcomes!
Our team is one big family, that is our culture. Family.
BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN....
Ignite Community Services didn’t start as 'Ignite Community Services’
It started as All Abilities Club....
All Abilities Club was born from a very bored and frustrated Andrea Coleman (me! front row red grinch shirt!) who was sick of seeing the same old ‘disability services’ in the NDIS system and wanted to make a genuine difference to people’s lives. I grew up with a lived experience of disability with my mum and my sister, so this became a natural calling, together with things I saw as a sister of someone who receives NDIS and has support staff that made my blood boil!
AAC kicked off with full NDIS registration in June 2019, and we have been go go go since then!
How did this start…Well that’s a story in itself.
After spending 9 years at a big organisation that went bankrupt where I was a senior coordinator managing residential properties, I was made redundant. I then went to work for the NDIS as an LAC in Ipswich for 10 months. Now let me tell you that’s an eye opener. Not just that, I was bored, I’m a ‘go get em person’ not a button pusher so I made the decision in 2019 to go out on my own. I resigned that comfy government job with little cash in my hand…newly single… kids to feed and a mortgage to pay and off I went into the world with one participant of 8 hours a week. EEKK!!
What I didn’t realise was the relationships I had built would soon follow me.
I had my 8 hours…what now? I need an accountant. Calling Tess, from Vision accounting in Browns plains while I’m sitting in a car park, ‘Hey…I think I need an ABN’! So Tess sorted me out with that, A fabulous bookkeeper Kristy and all the help I could ever need! Right, I’ve got this. Bring on my 8 hours a week.
Well that lasted about three weeks. I get a call, from an SC in Ipswich, we have a crisis, can you take over a SIL (Supported Independent living) in 48 hours? Sure. Why not?
WE GOT THIS! Hmm….I only have me!! Within 48 hours, I have 8 staff on board. All of the recruited ladies, we have worked together before. They all knew the call was coming so they tell me! We put this team together and off we went, it was a crazy 48 hours but I knew I had the best of the best team and yep..They rocked it. I was so confident in that team and our processes that I headed to Japan for an 8 day holiday which had been arranged well before now and not a single issue…except one. Lying on a bed after a long day in Tokyo I had a brain snap. I need to pay these people!! Urgent emails to Tess and Kristy who still to this day talk about that, it was honestly a very funny and nutty moment but you know what? It got sorted! They got paid, we all laughed and that was that.
Not long after this I was sitting with a close friend on her front porch on a Friday night and a quiet drink. She said to me you know this is going to blow up right? But in a good way. This is going to be huge. I told her I don’t care about the size, I care about the quality. And I have stuck with this 100%. She has always said this is going to be amazing and you know what? It really is.
It’s amazing. We are doing, everyday what I dreamed about for so long.
From those early days, which aren’t all that long ago, we have come so far. We have expanded and continue to do so in all areas.
We are now Ignite Community Services.
We don’t get around saying ‘look at us’ That’s just not who we are. We fly quietly, and when you find us you’ll glide in knowing you have landed in exactly the right place. We keep it relaxed, easy, comfortable, real and all about you, as it should be. It’s also important to know that we have zero desire to be some big fancy company.
We like it just how it is, we have caps on participants and support coordination participants. We do this to ensure that we can provide the best possible service to everyone we support. We embrace a work life balance for our staff so they can also be the best they can be in their own lives too.
The staff are the most important part of Ignite Community Services. If we don’t have the best staff, we can’t help our participants achieve great things.
18 months on from a very fast paced but very successful start we are supporting people to overcome anxiety, to become valuable members of the community with support finding volunteer work and jobs. Supporting people to live in their own homes in either ILO or SIL arrangements or just daily support. Supporting people in daily living but we don’t just support the person, we support the family…Because family is everything. And family is our culture.
Together we can.
On a final note, there’s a few people that need to be acknowledged in this journey. The people that supported me to change my life forever, start all over again and in turn change the lives of so many others at the same time. They were there, day after day listening to me talk about how we are going to have the best organisation ever and make incredible differences in people lives.
I won’t name you but you know who you are…
My team leaders and my Gatton girl. LOVE you all to bits xoxoxx
My parents, to listening to me go on and on about how excited I am to be going out there and showing the world how it should be!
And of course my boys. I was very painful to live with for a while there but hey, aren’t all mums! I couldn’t have done this without them.
Aaron, my middle boy is a custom cabinet maker, this kid and his team can make anything! Based also in Ipswich I’m sure that if you get in contact, he can help you out with just about anything! Just click on his logo on ‘Coleman Industries’ to see his work and get in contact.
And lastly..to Tess and Kristy. My financial lifeline! Such beautiful amazing people. Check them out by clicking on ‘Vision accounting’
Well that’s us…we are real, we are open, we are a little bit crazy but most of all, we have heart, determination, integrity and all we want is to support you to live your best life by your choice.
Andrea
Ignite Community Services Director
Special Mention - to the assistant Director asleep on my desk, everyday just doing nothing!!