By Teressa Jackson
Thursday afternoon, Tonya, Margie, and I visited Melba Support Services. The familiar story of parents in pursuit of services was part
of Melba’s history as well. The 40-year-old organization serves adults with
physical and/or intellectual disabilities and/or autism. They were the first
organization in Australia accredited in Person-Centered Excellence, and are
very focused on the individual wants and needs of their clientele.
Melba has a variety of programs, including group and
individual day services and community living. They created a bakery that sells
its goods by the name of Able Bakehouse. Selling just 18 packs of their
delicious treats a week pays for the service (we got treated to them, and they
were wonderful!), and 45-50 participants are involved in its operation in some
way, from chopping to mixing to baking to packaging to selling. 
As we’ve seen over and over, Melba is heavily reliant on
volunteer support, and most of their 265 workers are part-time or casual (what
we’d call PRN), with full-time workers being a small minority. Sixty volunteers
are regularly involved in agency programming, and are led by a full-time
volunteer coordinator.
Our last vocational stop on Thursday was at Wesley Fire & Clay. The operation employs adults with disabilities in ceramics-related
work. They formerly focused primarily on utilitarian ceramics such as tiles,
but have moved on to more artistic endeavors. Participants make beautiful birdbaths,
painted decorative objects, and other items. The program is seen as a path to
open employment at other venues, but many participants enjoy working there
long-term. Tonya and I were excited to see all the beautiful work they were
doing, and couldn’t help but make a few purchases to take home with us.
Margi then took us for a special treat to visit Yarra Valley Chocolaterie. This amazing facility produces some beautiful and delicious
chocolates, and we couldn’t resist making a few purchases there as well. After
the hard work of decision making, we refreshed ourselves with some honeycomb
ice cream on the veranda.
I arrived home at 6 p.m., but my day was far from over. I
freshened up and we headed back up the mountain to John’s wine club dinner,
where around sixty people feasted on a delectable five courses of food and wine
pairings. The kitchen was incredibly attentive to the request for my vegetarian
meal, and I enjoyed myself fully. We had great conversation, and many people
went out of their way to talk to the American woman. J I did receive a bit of
teasing from one attendee who had never been to America and insisted that it
was impossible that I didn’t drive a pickup truck or own a “big puffer coat”.
We didn’t arrive home until midnight, and I was to leave for a new home at 8:30
a.m. What a day and night!
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