Nathan is a 23-year-old man from Frankston who has been connected with BSL’s youth and employment services over the last five years. In 2022, BSL supported Nathan to attend and share his personal experiences of disadvantage at the federal government’s Jobs and Skills Summit.

I was totally shocked when BSL asked me to come to Canberra and be involved in the summit. I didn’t really believe it – it was kind of crazy.

I spoke on a panel about people who have faced disadvantage coming into the workforce – the problems they’ve had and how they’ve gotten around it. I talked about how I had grown up with domestic violence and there were people on the panel with all sorts of different backgrounds. It was really cool and inspiring to hear everyone talk there.

The crazy part for me, was everyone you would expect to see in Canberra was there – the Prime Minister, Treasurer, a bunch of people from government and business people. I also got to have a brief chat with the Prime Minister and Treasurer individually afterwards. It was unbelievable to have them hear directly from me one-on-one. I told them how appreciative I was to be there and it was really important, and how it meant a lot that someone like me could be talking to all these people that make decisions.

I hope that by sharing my story, other people won’t have to go through a lot of the things I have in the future. It was really good to have people hear me, so it’s not just people reading facts and numbers but they understand our real experience.

Now, I’m doing all sorts of personal and professional development stuff, including hosting events around social issues. It’s the most significant thing that’s happened to me in forever. Overall, I’m just very appreciative of what BSL has done for me and is doing for other people.