Athletes sign up for support work

What Ability, a disability support service that hires professional and semi-professional athletes, has landed in Perth and recruited players from the Fremantle Dockers and the West Coast Fever.

The organisation recently set up shop in Western Australia, after finding its model of using sports stars as support workers successful in New South Wales and Queensland.

It was started by former Parramatta Eels player Steve Dresler, who worked as a teacher’s aid at a school for children with autism during his time as a semi-professional athlete.

Much to their delight, he invited the kids he worked with to his games and took them jet skiing on the weekends.

When an injury forced him to give up on his sporting dreams, he decided to use this experience to start a disability support service focused on fun.

Since beginning in 2019, the business has grown to employ 200 support workers in New South Wales and around 50 in Queensland.

Its goal is to support people with disability engage in fun activities in the community like attending sport matches, going bushwalking or playing games at Timezone.

“We are not a typical disability service that does everything, we just focus on that fun element of life that kids and adults need,” Mr Dresler told Business News.

Mr Dresler said athletes were able to bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the job, as well as to help breakdown stigma for people with disability.

In WA, the business has recruited Heath Chapman and Sean Darcy from the Fremantle Dockers, West Coast Fever players Courtney Bruce and Rudi Ellis, and Georgia Wyllie from the Perth Scorchers.

The group also hires people who aren’t sports stars, on the proviso they are energetic and will participate in fun activities with participants.

Mr Dresler said some athletes use the job to supplement their income, while others do one shift a month to be part of the organisation as ambassadors.

What Ability operates as a for-profit business rather than a not-for-profit.

Participants access the service using funds from their National Disability Insurance Scheme plans.

It also has a charity arm, What Ability Foundation, that raises money to pay for support workers and participants to attend sports games and take part in other activities.