At the age of 16, Symantha McGrath was a young school drop out, hanging around with “the wrong crowd” after growing up in a very unstable environment. As a child Symantha had no adult role models or peers that were in any form of employment, key adults around her were drug affected, and as a result, she had to move homes and transition through different guardianship arrangements, often wagging school and missing out on her education.
Having only passed her schooling to the year nine level, Symantha didn’t have much confidence that there was much she could do or offer in employment. However, when she joined the Brotherhood as a business administration trainee at the cert III level, Symantha turned her life around. Her new employment “opened her eye’s” to what might be possible through new and productive peer networks. With the support of her Field Officer and a staff team at Frankston who had taken her under their wing, Symantha began to fly through her certificate finishing it early in the traineeship, Symantha then went on to exceed expectations by completing the cert four in business administration.
Today, at 18 years old, Symantha works in Administration and Customer Service at a distribution company Health Magic, she’s got savings, she’s got a license, in her words, she’s on her way.