‘Oh, the places you’ll go’

MICHAEL SIEFF

Would you believe though, as I’ve recently discovered, that travelling just 500 metres from my usual location can be as eye-opening as a world tour?

My office has been inside the Donald Gordon Centre on the Sandringham Gardens campus since I started working at the Chev almost six years ago. But at the moment those premises are being renovated to make more office space and I, with some of my colleagues, have temporarily relocated to the Selwyn Segal campus where protected employment workshops for adult Selwyn Segal residents and residents from our mental health facilities, are housed. 

We’ve been there for almost three months now and will stay until the work at the Donald Gordon is completed and we can move back there.

It turns out that getting face-time with these (approximately 60) people that the Chev supports, has been a wonderful, reaffirming experience for me. Every day they pass by my office door on their way to and from their workstations and greet me warmly: “Hello Michael Sieff!” or, if I’m not there: “Where is Michael Sieff?”

They often pop their heads in the door and chat to me about their health, bring me pictures they have drawn or tell me news about Yomtov, the other residents or themselves, what they’re doing, where they’re going, how they’re feeling.

It’s not like I was unaware before of who they are or what they do. I’m in close contact with all divisions and managers and make regular and frequent visits to every sector. Still, in many ways, being in their space, and interactive, is an experience I have not had before. 

It brings home to me the inestimable worth of each individual, the incredible value of the Chev’s work and the great privilege I have to be part of this organisation. I may only have travelled a small distance, but I have encountered a whole new world to appreciate and cherish.

May our partnership continue to thrive!

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