LEADING disability service provider Cara has named Mount Gambier’s Kylie Withers as the recipient of its 2018 Nicole Senter Scholarship.
Mother of two Ms Withers initially started studying teaching, before taking on a job as a support worker with Disability SA.
Now a Mount Gambier Cara service manager, Ms Withers is undertaking a special education and disability double degree through the University of New England.
“As soon as I started my degree in special education and disability, I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do,” Ms Withers said.
“I knew I had found my passion in working with people with disabilities and I wanted to learn more about how I could help people to live their best life.
“My studies have been invaluable in giving me the knowledge to support my colleagues to work alongside our customers to help them achieve their goals.”
Cara awards the scholarship every two years in honour of the late Nicole Senter, a Cara customer and board director renowned for her grit, determination and love of learning.
The criteria for the scholarship includes Cara staff who are of Australian citizenship or permanent residency and studying beyond certificate III or IV in disability.
The scholarship will see Ms Withers receive $5000 towards further study.
Cara chief executive Liz Cohen was on the judging panel for the scholarship, along with Nicole’s mother Tracey Fox.
“Kylie’s passion for the industry and determination to expand her knowledge and the business in Mount Gambier is clear to everyone who meets her,” Ms Cohen said.
“We call our staff possible people because they live our promise we ‘find possible’ and Kylie epitomises this promise.
“Under Kylie’s leadership over the past 18 months, the team in Mount Gambier has gone from employing five to 25 staff and still growing.”
Ms Cohen believes the scholarship win “caps off” the year for Ms Withers after she was named winner of the leadership award at Cara’s recognition of excellence awards earlier in 2018.
Nicole Senter served as a member of Cara’s board of directors, chairwoman of Cara’s consumer reference council (CRC) and a Cara volunteer.
Nicole also served as the inaugural chairperson of the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association’s Consumer Representative Committee.
Known for her competitive spirit, Nicole competed in swimming in junior wheelchair sports, in which she was a national record holder in 1999 and later as a qualified personal trainer, competing in the City to Bay fun runs and mini marathons.
Nicole started living independently in 2005 and was one of the first residents of Cara’s Woodville West Concierge apartments.
