Monthly BBQs at Perth’s Ruah Centre
As part of our ongoing commitment to give back to the community, AFG engage in numerous volunteering and charity work throughout the year. From Christmas gift donations through the Kmart wishing tree initiative, and providing female hygiene products and everyday essentials for homeless women via the #itsinthebag campaign, to our staff volunteering their time to assist in local charity drives, we’re proud to support where we can.
AFG has recently put its hand up to send a number of its staff to the Ruah Centre to help with the cooking and serving of lunch from time to time, as part of the company’s wider corporate volunteering program.
The centre is incredible – they offer food, mental health and wellness services and justice support – right through to the basics we take for granted; somewhere to shower, somewhere to wash your clothes, computers to use, and somewhere to probably just sit and feel safe and cared for even if it’s only for a few hours a day.
What our staff member who volunteered really noticed was the difference even a few hours of helping and listening there made to the people who use the centre. Several of the elderly gents at the centre reminded many of us of fathers and grandfathers, and it was a reminder of how fortunate our parent’s/grandparent’s lives have been compared to theirs, and how easily the tables could have been turned. Spending time with people with real, raw and daily struggles puts life in perspective pretty quickly.
Many of our staff drive past the Ruah Centre most days on the way to work. It is right next to iconic city park where Fringe is held every year, however many of us never realised the centre was even there, the great work it does and how easy it is to get involved and make a difference. AFG only hope we can do more to help them in the years ahead with mates and family; the smallest gesture there with even just one person is enough to make an impact.
The Ruah manifesto is simple, and so true. “We are all better off, as a community, as a society, if we are all connected.”
Mental Health Week
Mental Health Week (8-14 October) is a week dedicated to promoting mental health awareness and helping reduce the stigma.
To mark this week, AFG scheduled a variety of events highlighting the importance of mental and physical health across all our offices Australia-wide. Each day focused on a different aspect of health and wellbeing with a supporting app suggested to assist with on-going positive mental health. Staff were invited to participate in a range of initiatives which ranged from free health checks, to information on building healthy relationships, and ways of reducing stress.
To wrap up the week, we encouraged everyone to wear blue and make a donation to beyondblue, a non-for-profit organisation raising awareness of depression, anxiety disorders and suicide prevention.
Here’s our Digital Creative, Simon Mateljan, sharing his personal experience with the AFG head office team in Perth.
Shortly after mental health week, we were joined by guest speaker Matthew Johnstone, who talked about mental and emotional resilience and how we build it.
Matt is an illustrator, and you might know him from his book ‘I had a Black Dog’ – his personal account on what it is to suffer depression and anxiety and what can be learnt from it. His brilliant, disarming bestseller is clever and poignant and has also been made into a short film.
Matt spoke about resilience only being forged when we come through what challenges us, mentally, emotionally and physically. What can be learnt from these experiences? How do we turn a negative event into something positive and meaningful and grow from it? How can we imbue our lives with techniques that help maintain resilience, an inner toughness and a better sense of wellbeing? His chat was practical, amusing and hit the spot.
Current vacancies at AFG
If you are interested in pursuing a career at AFG, why not have a look at our current vacancies on Seek. We work hard to create a unique culture for our employees; check out or HR page to get an insight into what it’s like to work at AFG. If you don’t see a vacancy that suits what you’re looking for, but think you can add value to our team, we’d love to hear from you! Email our HR team: hr@afgonline.com.au
