UnitingCare Victoria and Tasmania early childhood consultant Joy Williams enjoyed a morning tea with her colleagues before she officially ended more than 20 years of service with the organisation.
More than 50 people gathered on 1 July to give Ms Williams a memorable send off as she embarked on life as a retiree.
Joy said the reason for her long tenure with UnitingCare came down to job satisfaction.
“It shows how fabulous the job has been over the years and the diversity of the job in what I have been able to do,” she said.
“Also, the church has been very supportive in working in the communities and setting up services in the communities.”
Joy kicked off her career in early childhood as a kindergarten teacher then diversified into childcare and administrative roles in both federal and state government.
“I worked in childcare in the days when kindergarten teachers really didn’t work in childcare,” Joy said.
“I was coordinator of a child care centre. After that I went and worked for the state government as a children’s services advisor, which involved going out and inspecting to ensure our services were adhering to the regulations.”
Joy has seen many changes and worked across many floors at the 130 Little Collins Street building.
“Where kindergartens sit within government has changed many times; it’s been in health services, community services, education and now we are nearly back to community services again.”
Joy plans to spend time travelling the world and continue with some consultancy work on a casual basis.
“I will miss a lot of the people in the building that I work with because I’ve built some really great friendships over the years.”
Comments are closed.