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Jessica Benge, Founder and Director of Racing with Autism Australia

 

 

In this week’s episode, Geoff is talking to Jessica Benge who was a Winner in the 2021 Tasmanian Young Achiever Awards.

Founder and Director of Racing with Autism Australia. Over 12 years’ experience in the Disability Industry specialising my work in working alongside people on the Autism Spectrum. A confident out going person who loves public speaking and supporting dreams of others.

Jess Benge thrives on helping others reach their potential. Jess is the Founder and Director of Racing with Autism in Tasmania, and is also a Learning Support Officer with Avidity Training. Jess knew she wanted to go into a caring career and forged her own path starting at school.

Jess works with Avidity Training and Development as trainer and assessor in the disability industry. She was previously a workshop facilitator for Autism Tasmania. Jessica was also nominated for Young Australian of the Year 2020.

 

In this episode:

  • We hear how about Jess’s passion for helping those on the autism spectrum to access racing in so many ways, form dirt speedway, junior sedans, junior formula 500, Motocross, BMX, asphalt go-carts or event online racing.
  • Jess’s motto is taken from a racing movie – The future belongs to the people who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Links

Connect with Racing with Autism Australia on Facebook

Connect with Racing with Autism Australia on Instagram

Check out the Racing with Autism Australia website

And if you’d like to contact Jess, email her at jessrwaa@gmail.com

 

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Transcript 

Annette

Welcome to the Inspirational Australian’s podcast, where we chat to people making a difference in their communities and in the lives of others. And here’s your host today, Geoff Griffin.

Geoff

Welcome to the inspirational Australian’s podcast stories of inspiring achievements and community contribution. Every week we will celebrate an award program category, winner or finalists. We hope you’ll be inspired and encouraged to know that Australia is in good hands, together with our corporate partners and not for profit partners, Awards Australia, showcase ordinary people from across Australia doing extraordinary things. If you enjoy hearing the stories of our inspirational Australians, please subscribe, rate us and review us. We really appreciate it.

My guest today is the founder and director of Racing with Autism in Tasmania. There’s also a learning support officer with Avidity Training in recognition of the significant community contribution Jessica Benge has been acknowledge as a finalist in the 2021 TADPAC Print Service to the Disability Sector Award in the Tasmanian Young Achiever Award.

Jess, it’s really great to have you on the podcast today. Welcome.

Jessica

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Geoff

My absolute pleasure. You’re doing so much good work in the community. It’s really exciting to be able to share some of your story today. And I know that you have a driving passion, excuse the pun, for making a difference in the lives of others. What led you down that path?

Jess

Yes, I really, I guess, interesting story as to how I got to where I am today in it. It started when I was quite young. I grew up with my cousin who has a severe disability, so that was my interest and my passion in wanting to work with people who have disabilities. And I seen her struggles. And I really wanted to see if I could fill a void there and prevent that for other families. So, when I Went through school, I dedicated my learning to different subjects that would then lead me to, to be able to go straight into the workforce as soon as possible. And I was really lucky to get a really great work placement on my traineeship at Giant Steps in Deloraine, which is a school for children on the autism spectrum. So, I spent quite a few years there, getting everything down packed, learning a lots of things, and then moved on to a couple of different positions. One back at my high school that I went to where I was helping children transition from primary school to high school previous to that in 2009, I won that in School Student of the Year, so Vocational Education Training S tudent of the year for Tasmania, which was which was a really good first and definitely a good résumé addition. And then in 2013 I won Tasmanian T raining of theYear so that was really exciting as well. From that I then went on to the nationals where I was offered to apply for an Australian overseas foundation scholarship. And that’s what led me to then win that scholarship, which was something that I’m extremely proud of. And I then had to find my own job abroad. I have to say and with my passion for racing, my passion for autism, I came across Austin Riley story. And he and his family started Racing with Autism in Canada. And I sent them a Facebook message of all things and said, hey, this is me, this is who I am, this is what I do. I have this opportunity to go overseas. You know, of any jobs. He said, replied and said, come, work with us. And then three days later, my flights were booked, a couple of months later, I was ona plane and the whole Racing with Autism journey started there. So, that was the start to it. And you know, I’ve never done anything else really apart from being the autism world since I was16. So, it’s something that I’ve dedicateda fair chunk of my life to.

Geoff

That’s a fantastic story. And that’sa great inspiration to others. That if you have a dream go after it, not only if you’re going after it and followed that passion with all of the work and studies that you’ve undertaken, but you’ve achieved greatness along the way. With those rewards that you saved isbecause of your due diligence, your passion, and your enthusiasm. To make a difference in the area that you feel compelled to, which is really exciting for anybody. It doesn’t matter what, what job, it is what passion you have, what career follow your passion, follow your dreams, and working as hard as you can to be the best version of yourself that you can. And you’ll get there and it’s all just laid beautifully, hasn’t it? To do something that you do that is really important that makes a massive difference. So, congratulations for that. And as from there being in Canada, you move back to Tassie and you became founder and director of Racing with Autism in Tasmania still a little bit earlier than otherwise known as RWAA?

Jess

Yeah, it’s actually Racing with Autism Australia.

Geoff

Oh yes. Ah yes, yes.

 

 

Jess

Yes, yes, I came home I settled for a few years. I gained lots of experience within the NDIS because that sort of all launched just before I was moving overseas. And obviously that’s sucha big part of the disability industry. And for people who live with disabilities now because that is their funding model and this structure behind the way that they can be supported. So, I got some background on that. I worked in a, in a position where I could get as much knowledge as I could there. And then I had my son as well. And he was born witha couple of health complications. So, I found myself doing support work and, and gaining that little bit of independence back into growing my career again, which is always been something that’s really important to me. And then last year just after Tasmania basically after we come out of our main Covid lockdown, I thought to myself, what is it that I actually am really passionate about and what, what made my time in Canada as amazing as it did? I would jump back there and go back into that life in a heartbeat, and I’m a big believer of you know, where you belong and you know what you’re good at. And I think I really found that when I lived in Canada and I thought my options not there, you know, my family is here, my son and his dad’s here. I don’t want to take him away from any of that. But how can I bring that here? I had a conversation with the Riley family in Canada, especially Austin’s dad Jason, and he said, you always said how cool would it be to have Racing with Autism Australia, and do your own version. So, racing with autism is based in Canada, is based around Austin’s story. And they sponsor another car on the Spectrum. Every racing year where here it could be about, you know, one or two or three people in the spectrum that are involved in motor sport. So, I have a fairly big following on social media, and I popped a post-up and said something exciting is about to happen. Jess just got an idea when she gets an idea, so, it is a pretty big one. And I got a lot, a lot of messages, like what are you up to? And then from there I got my first couple of races across Australia that were interested in being involved. So, we got our logo, we got our Facebook page. My goal really last year in June, so it was June twenty twenty that I launched, racing with autism, Australia was to support five people on the Spectrum that are involved in motorsports. And if that has blown completely at so it’s become something way bigger than I ever expected it to be. But that’s something I’m also really proud of.

Geoff

That’s fantastic. So awesome. What’s the overarching purpose of RWAA? You talked about helping people on the Spectrum. What’s the bigger purpose?

Jess

The big purpose is to teach people and give people knowledge around the autism spectrum. One in four boys are diagnosed with autism in Australia and, and we’re seeing some females and girls being diagnosed more now as well. So, it’s about preventing the bullying preventing the non-acceptance and the inclusion of people who are on the, on the spectrum and, and we really have three core parts to Racing with Autism Australia now. Number one is supporting our races, who are on the spectrum as best we possibly can. Number two is to create that awareness, acceptance and knowledge by sharing our stories by running educative sessions to community groups. And number three is to be present, to be present in the community to go to large events and to providea space for people on the spectrum where they feel as though they’re safe and that they can come there and feel like they’re not going to be judged if they need to have a meltdown or if they’re overwhelmed and all those sorts of things. So, I guess my idea started with, let’s do a Racing with autism, Australia, and support people on the spectrum across the country that race to let’s sharetheir stories. Let’s bring them all together to give as much knowledge to the community as we possibly can.

Geoff

I believe it all took off much faster than you expected.

Jess

Absolutely, so we get inquiries weekly. I’ve got now got a whole team around me that support because I work full time. I’m a single mom. I’ve got Racing with Autism Australia which, which is my passion is what makes me excited. But I’ve got somebody that’s in control of events. I’ve got somebody that helps with sponsorships and intake of new races and keeping me on track. So, we now have twenty-eight races across the country involved in motorsport genres of all sorts, as well as BMX. So that’s racing and we have weekly zoom sessions with all the races that we’ve created. A community and what most of the races actually say, a family and a team that they finally feel as though they’re a part of something. And that’s something that makes me really proud to listen to that or to read that, they’ll pop on Facebook. I finally feel accepted on a part of the Team and it’s, it’s very special.

Geoff

It’s a wonderful network that you’ve created. I think that’s brilliant. What’s the age range of those you support and I guess there’s a range on the spectrum that you work with?

Jess

Yeah, we we’re so open. Like I said to, to one of my good friends Renee, the other day. We’re so lucky to have such a broad range. So, our youngest race is eight, and our eldest racer is 40, so we have a we have a range. So, our adult races are great mentors and great friends for our younger races. But our younger racers bring the passion and the enthusiasm in your life to our adult races, which is so cool. Just on the weekend two our adult racers, who are both involved in different types of racing themselves went along in Brisbane to watch one of our younger racers, race BMX. And that’s something that wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t start this. So, this young man who has failed quite lot, sometimes in racing and not understood, had two people that he really looks up to go out and watch. So, we have a broad range. The autism spectrum is a spectrum there’s, it’s so diverse. So, we have a lot of diversity within our team as well, which is really great because it helps us to teach and educate about what people do go through day to day when they’re living on the spectrum.

Geoff

Absolutely brilliant. We have a family member that has high functioning autism, So, we know to a degree how difficult it is to engage with others. And it’s one of those difficulties for us. It’s harder and harder for people to see the difference it’s alleged to have. If you’re high functioning, you don’t have physical signs that you have a disability or whatever it is. And people are very tolerant of those that are a little bit different to them. And I think we’re making good progress and goodsteps. But we have a long way to go for understanding, as you said before, that people may bea little bit different and slightly different. Whether it be physical, emotional, or otherwise, different approaches and different requirements and needs that which the majority of people have. So, we fully understand the value of what you’re doing because there are different levels of the on the Spectrum as well, of people within that twenty-eight group that you work with on the network. How difficult is that as part of your group?

 

Jess

Sometimes it can be a little bit difficult probably at times for me, especially because I’m changing the way that I’m approaching each of our racers to how they need to be approached. Personally, there’s quite a few of these racers that I’ve never actually met face to face before. So, because we all over Australia I did get to go to Brisbane in April and on one day I met nine of our racers, which was really exciting. It is hard, you know, you’re changing your role and how you’re speaking to and how you’re giving advice and it comes down to not even just the autism diagnosis, but the right thing as well. So, they want sponsorship advice for motocross, I’m changing the way, I’m thinking about that too. We have 28, I listed races that we have about ten races who aren’t quite ready to come out in the public yet, and being in the public eye and that’s totally fine. And that’s an option that we provide as well, because we’re here to support. It’s not all about being on social media and putting your name out there. We also have a family that we’re working with, whose child is, you know, level two, level three on the Spectrum which isn’t quite as high functioning, and really that’s a work in progress to get them involved in motor. So, building a car that they can just look at, they can touch the tires, they can see if I can get at just becoming more comfortable and familiar. We, as I said, we get inquiries nearly daily and they’ll be often a different inquiry. Certainly, along the lines of, you know, my child’s interest in going to a racetrack to watch that they have sensitivity to noise, what do you suggest? I say lots of those sort of things that in such a broad range of what we’re doing, it’s hard sometimes to put everything into the concepts that I would like to add to the scale of things. But I’ve also got a personal trait of mine is OK, this is exciting. Let’s do this. Now. A few people have changed me down a little bit and they expect we’ll do it over time, which is, which is great.

Geoff

Well, I think there’s a good blend there because I think you’ve got to be proactive, but also sometimes a little realistic.

Jess

Yes, absolutely.

Geoff

In terms of your dreams. Never stop dreaming and dream big sounds like a wonderful blend that you have in your team. What levels of competition or sections of racing that with Racing with Autism Australia?

Jess

So, we’ve got we’ve got motocross races across races are actually both in Tasmania, which is really cool. So, I’m quite often at the motocross track, supporting them and they are both under the age of 13. So, one of them races state rounds. So that’s the highest level of motocross that you can get in Tasmania. And at the moment he’s currently sitting about 50 in the championship, which is, which is also manageable. Now, while the young motocross who is building up his confidence, he wins very frequently at his, at his junior track. So, that’s great that we have many, many ashfield guy, codders, so I have off the top of my head there be about 15 of our raices to that. ashfield guy codders. They’re spread from Hobart Tasmania to Ipswich, Queensland, we have a young man in New South Wales in Adelaide, Victoria, you name it, and they all race either by magistrates and local club, around they might race state national level. Everybody is sort of doing different things. We also have, as I mentioned before, our BMX racer is very talented. We have lots of dirt speedway races too, which is my forte. That’s the most background that I come from. So, I was really excited to get those guys on board and they range from speedway car to speedway junior sedans to speedway junior five hundred to speedway at low cat. So, it is a range of motorsports that we are, that we have on our team, which is really cool.

Geoff

Sounds very cool.

Jess

Yeah, it is. We also have a young following, a young man, an adult who is from Tasmania, and he is heavily involved in racing. So, he races online and in a large, more or less the online V8 supercar championship is how I put it. And that’s really cool. He gives such good insight to our other races who are starting to do simulated racing. Lots of them are in Covid lockdown at the moment, so,he has been a massive mentor for our younger races, which is, which is great.

Geoff

It is great. You’ve talked about your mentors and the volunteers. You’ve talked about their roles, how many would you have helping across a year?

Jess

It’s slowly started to build up. Renee, who I mentioned earlier, she was actually the friend of mine who led me to the original Racing with Autism Facebook page. So, if it wasn’t for her even pointing me in that direction, I didn’t even know that we would be here. So, she’s heavily involved. I’ve got to say, can you do this and she does it for me. We have Zoom every Monday night, I can’t, I can’t always be there as much as I like to but, she will step in and run that and got the races. One of our racers is actually my nephew, so my sister is heavily involved. He’s working his way into building his confidence to race. So, she does lots of out when we get a new race. So, she helps we form so we can keep track of who we’ve got and wherewe’ve got them and all those sorts of things. A co-worker of mine helps a lot with the setting up of the future and what’s, what’s going to happen and where RWAA is actually going to go. And he’s excellent. And then we have 2 mentor racers. So, people were involved in Motorsportsthat have an interest in what we’re doing. One of those is a young girl, she’s 18. She’s doing the same course that I did when I was at college, which is exciting for me and she’s currently actually doing her work placement with me. So that’s really nice. And she races via Sprint cards and she’s a great leader and mentor for our races as well. So, we get people are constantly asking, how can they be involved, which is which is great. But sometimes we have to scale it down because it becomes more painful for me to manage and, and give direction to you. So, it’s with the support we have is huge.

Geoff

Huge responsibility on your shoulders. The more the bigger it grows, the more you have to do and be across the board. As you say, you’rea single mom to get a job to do as well as the passion. That is extraordinary. And sometimes I think we take for granted the amount of work that people do on our behalf, and on the behalf of the community that we’re maybe not directly as individualsinvolved with them. Thank you so much and congratulations for all that really is extraordinary. And you must have built a really wonderful camaraderie, and friendship with all those that you’re supporting are involved with.

Jess

They’re my best friends like I just, and there’s not a day that goes by that I can speak to at least one of them all three or four or five of them or every Monday night we consume and we have up to twenty-five of us on zoom. We have a racer of the night. So, one of our races always givesa little talk and talks about how they’re racing started and has photos and even on zoom, seeing how far some of our younger racers have come. One of our youngest, he would never communicate, he was on their but camera off. Never said anything to now he’s like hand up, hi everyone, I’m here and I get messages from his parents when we’re on zoom saying like this is amazing, he’s interacting with others. He’s socializing, he wants to share his story. So it is, it is a big responsibility, but I say it is, it was my idea and I will go with it and maybe one day it’s something that I might be out adjuster, and it’s setting up a future as well as I say for my son who’s only three who we go to racetracks on a weekend, and one of our moto crossers Corey is become my son’s hero and how nice is that? You know? So, my son’s trained, he’s already on motorbikes. It’s in his blood right now, racing is in his blood and he looks out to our Racing with autism races and not we’re not spending more than that.

Geoff

Absolutely brilliant. I love it. Speaking of love, you may have partly already answered it, but what we love most about RWAA?

Jess

I think that I have been able to continue sort of what I learned from in Canada and bring it to my home country. What I love the most is that I’ve been able to make the Riley family in Canada proud because we’ve, we’ve been able to create something here from their idea and from Austin’s amazing story. And we, in a couple of weeks, we’re actually releasing a full-length documentary about the trip that we did around North America in 2015, where we traveled nearly thirty thousand kilometers in a rice trailer. There was five of us and we spoke to thousands and thousands of Americans and Canadians about Austin’s story. And so that’s, we’re doing an Australian premier, obviously because I couldn’t go to the Canadian one here in a couple of weeks. And what makes me proud is we’ve been able to give something to these racers that they didn’t have before. And that was to feel as though they were part of something. And to feel as though they were part of the team and that they’ve got friendships for life and not just from me, it’s from the people that they’ve met. And that’s, that’s super special.

Geoff

It is super special. It’s absolutely fabulous. Now I believe before I ask this question, Covid must have had an impact on some of the things you would have liked to have done. And of course, some of the racing, some of the states as well over the last 18 months. It must be frustrating.

Jess

Yeah, it is frustrating. We had a and I had a trip planned to go to New South Wales where we were going to obviously watch some racing, be there, really gain some awareness about us because we haven’t had the biggest response from New South Wales and we know that that we can be more dominant there. and currently our Victorian and New South Wales races haven’t hit a track for a long time. And what people don’t understand is that when somebody on the spectrum enjoys something in my life, something they want to do that all the time. And that’s what brings them happiness. That’s where they come. That’s where they feel less anxious and all those sorts of things. So, you know, I’m really, really feeling for them and we try and do things as much as we can. So, for our racer of the night, we’ve made sure that it’s the young racer’s tonight, Daniel. He’s in New South Wales. So, Daniel’s going to be right of the night because it’s given him something to actually look forward to in Tasmania, we haven’t been as affected touchwood. We have been really lucky. But as far as me going to the mainland, like I had planned even for school presentations in our race’s schools and stuff, it’s just, it’s a can happen at the moment. And that’s okay as well because it does give me moretime to build it up. So that when we can do it, we can do it well, and it’s, and it’s not rushed. So yeah, Covid, I mean, who has it impacted really, it’s, it’s one of those things and we’ll get through it and you know, it’s been something that the team have been able to bond over as well because we’ve given them a group to socialising. They’ve got their own private Facebook page where they chat and yeah, it’s, it’s really good.

Geoff

Fantastic! I believe that you also do some motorracing yourself. Can you tell us a little bit more?

Jess

Yeah, not so much in the past couple of years, due to try to having my son and not being the mom racer. But I’ve raced cars for a long time and it wasn’t felt like my parents were into you or anything like that. I worked a summer job to purchase my first car and I put it together myself and race many years at the back wasn’t overly successful, but I was passion. I loved it. I was there every weekend and have some of my bestfriends time out of my time racing. So, my son’s dad is heavily involved in racing and we’re really great friends and we traveled the country in speedway racing, and I do lots of work at one of the local tracks when the big races come on the commentary Team. So, interviewing drivers and all those sorts of things that racing’s a part of who I am and it’s a passion that I found at a really young age and something that definitely obviously helps with, with what we’re doing. And I was really lucky when I went to Canada that I was ableto race when I was over there on asphalt, which was completely different for me. I was given opportunities that, that were excellent. And I came home and was completely different, was quite successful in my racing. It always sorts of been about putting others before myself and I find more happiness out of helping out RWAA racers hit the track and now supporting my son in his love for motorbikes, which is a little bit costly but that fun bit.

Geoff

So not only have you been committed to supporting people on the spectrum for the past 12 years, we talked a little bit earlier about the experience that you’ve gained along the way invarious positions, the jobs and the passion in that regard to helping people with autism we’ve also got practical experience as a racer to help people through Racing with Autism Australia you have some pretty rounded, amazing young woman, aren’t you?

 Jess

Oh, thank you. I like to think that I have, I mean, one of the things that I like is that if I go to a race track, I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. I know my way around go karts quite well up the amount of guidance that I’ve pulled down and put back together. I thought that general knowledge they especially speedway carts because that’s what our race. But when I was in Canada, at the end of race nights, quite often I was doing tire changes. I wasn’t just Austin’s personal assistant. I was there to assist as much as I possibly could in every way. So I do have some random knowledge there of racing and have those sort of things work even from just getting memberships and licenses and, and how sponsorship works and what large organizations and businesses want to see to support someone. So, we’re involved in it, in a genre of sport that is really expensive and you know, it’s, it’s hard at times for families to keep their children or themselves on track. So,I definitely think that I’ve got the background knowledge in that and I try to use that knowledge to my advantage. That’s for sure.

Geoff

Yeah. Also, I, as we said earlier, learning support us with ability. What’s your role there and what eventually you do?

Jess

Yes, I’m a trainee, trainer and assessor more or less so I’m working through my qualification to be qualified trainer and assessor. Which what that means is I would be then qualified to train and assess vocational education training qualifications. And that’s the pathway that I went down with my, my learning and my qualifications to get where I am today. So instead of being a student, I’m going to be all I am on the other end is as the teacher slash trainer. And that’s something that I always knew that I wanted to go down. And when avidity had the position vacant, I was ready for that for that step last year. So, it’s coming up to 12 months, they are the most flexible people to work for them. I thoroughly understand where I am with Racing with Autism Australia, my direct manager, and one of the business owners was at the Young Achiever Awards with us that night. They’re heavily involved in what I do and know that. I guess that that’s my passion, but I also know how career orientated I am and how I want to get to a certain point. So, I assist people with qualifications anywhere from cert three and individual support in disability toa diploma in community Services. So, covering at the moment four qualifications, so certificate falls as well and assisting around one hundred and twenty learners and on mainly on the North West Coast of Tasmania. But I’m heavily supported and at currently work from home, which is really good too. But I spent a lot of my time on the road it’s, it’s been really good for me. It’s been three moves that I made it. But it’s also Avidity themselves have. They’re flexible. They are very aware of my position with RWAA and they’re super supportive.

Geoff

A big shout out to Avidity. Thank you, team, for being so supportive of Jess. And just to mentioned you’re on the road a bit and I had this vision of you in this dirt car, tearing up the roads, tearing down the highway and doing burnouts, and sorry, very bad vision. Very naughty, but a shout out to your Team. And what you’re doing is making a huge difference and look how beautiful it is. That compliments with Racing with Autism Australia all come together, your whole life has been about making a difference. And you had a passion and a vision where you want to go. What you want to do and must be very proud of yourself and very happy with what you’ve achieved. I know we’re on our own worst critics, and we will always think we should be doing more about what you’ve done is really super fantastic. So, congratulations for that.

 

Jess

Thank you.

Geoff

You’re are confident and outgoing person. I think we’re probably starting to understand on this podcast having a chat to our listeners that you’re quite confident you speak very well, which is awesome. But you love public speaking as well and supporting the dreams o others, which is very commendable. Can you tell us if you have any memorable public speaking engagements or been someone that truly shown how much that benefit from you?

Jess

Oh, yeah. One of the most memorable for me was not long after I come home from Canada and, and the college that I went to who put me through my certificate training community Services, nominated me for Tasmanian Student of the Year in 2009, contacted me and said, would I go and do more or less the guest speaker at the massive end of year award ceremony. And we talk in Tasmania, we’re not a massive place, but your college of over 2000 students. So, it was really quiet. It was really quitespecial to be that person that they recognized, had a story and could be inspiring and, and I’d come back from Canada and I was probably a little bit flat at that point in time because I had, you know, I had to come home and re-find myself, and that was probably the spark to get me up and going again and that I walked away from that feeling. As I know my story wasn’t finished and I had so much more to offer having people stand and clap at the end of that. That speech, which one of these people that don’t prepare something I am known for how much Italk. I’m known for being quite loud and out there and, and having a sense of humor and I’m, I’ma realist. I want to be real. I want people. I know a lot of people, I know, actually deal with quite bad anxiety myself. You have me walking to a supermarket and I’ll feel anxious. Put me on the stage in front of two thousand people and I’m comfortable and people say, how is that even possible? And it was actually this year when I was announced the winner of the Service to the Disability Sector Award at the Young Achiever Awards. It was the first time that I Went with a prepared speech because it was that award, probably out of all the awards that I’ve won meant the most to me. And I think that was because I had had a rough couple of years and, and I was finding myself again and, and it was like that recognition of the hard work and that the effort that I’ve put in for so long. And that was the one that I really wanted, and I don’t know that I’ve ever fully cried, but I cried during that speech because I think everything changes when you become a parent as well because you want your child to be proud of you and you want a little job and he’s just, he’s got no idea, but it’s something that he can watch later on in life and say, you know, that’s, that’s my mom. And I think that, I think that’s pretty special to me. In America, going to massive colleges and standing up and helping Austin share his stories. When we started the whole idea in Canada, Austin was 14 going on 15. And he, he wasn’t that guy. He had a lot of anxiety about going into these new places and when we started the big tour, he would sit down and nod and wave and he started autographs and that was all halfway through the tour. We couldn’t get the microphone off him. So, he and now he stands in front of thousands of people and shares his story across the world. He’sbeen invited all over the world. Austin, I bought Austin to Australia twice and in two thousand and sixteen. We did a presentation in Canberra, which was involved in and organised by the Australian training awards. And the, basically the people who helped me get the scholarship and Austin and I sat there together and I even spoke about how, you know, we’d love to have Racing with autism in Australia and, and that, that was really powerful. And I watch that quite often. It was videoed and if I’m feeling like a bit flat out quite often get that out and just see how far Austin and myself have come. Yeah.

Geoff

Well, I think to be successful and to learn and grow. You’ve got to come face to face with your failures. You have to accept them. Howhave the lessons that you’ve learnt so far helped you to cope and grow?

Jess

I’ve probably been throwing a few spins is that I didn’t want to live ina few challenges in a couple of days. Have been dealing with the loss of one a co-worker to suicide when I was quite young and, and I found, you know, I found that really tough, but also, I found that very inspiring and I quite often thrive off of that tragedy. But I had to continue to make progress and to make people happy and to show people that, that I belong and have somewhere to belong to. I also lost a good friend of mine ina car accident when I was young as well. And he was bound to be a sportsman at the Olympics. He was a very, very talented young man and I found inspiration from him not getting those opportunities and making thinking I want to take those. There’s so much to my child in my story, always that I was that kid that wouldn’t go to their friend’s house because I would get homesick. And I think I was about 15 when I had my first ever sleepover. So, for me to pack up and move overseas was was huge. That was massive for me, but it was those continuous reminders that I’ve got these opportunities and I’m going to take them because others don’t have these opportunities. And I’m so lucky that I’m so fortunate, and one of the biggest things is that I come from a small town, small county, primary school and I want others to see that it doesn’t matter where you come from, that you can be someone and you can create a life for yourself regardless. And then in the recent years, having my son who was born incredibly unwell and and we were told that hepotentially wouldn’t make it and that he has ongoing health conditions. Now, I have honestly, really struggled with that over the last three years because I was completely put me off having any more children. It’s also inspired me to, to create the most out of what we have in the time that we have. And I think in this day and age we have to take every opportunity we do. I’ve definitely come from in the last few years, somebody who at times was quite sad and quiet and, and have found my love and my passion again. And I’ve always said, I’ve always said in my speeches, it’s never been about me. It’s been about the people that I work with. And the people that I work with have created me to be the person that I am. That’s something that I’m always thankful for and if it wasn’t for Racing with Autism Australia, the last year, not sure how we would have gone through covid and all those sorts of things because it keeps me motivated. It gets me up every morning and, and came to see what our racers have for me every day, all their messages.

Geoff

And I think it seems to me that you’ve been able to turn sorrow into success. You’ve been able to turn misfortune or disadvantage into opportunity. And you’ve really looked on the positive side ofthings wherever you can, and I really think that’s so important for all of us. It’s so easy to feel down, to think negatively, to dwell, rather than say, well, I am in a position where I can do something. Someone else may not have been able to do and it’s my responsibility to take up that challenge and do what they have not been able to do for whatever reason. So again, I think you’re such a great role model for everybody because of all that you do and what are your future plans and goals is such an inspirational person?

Jess

I really want to continue with my current career. I want to be the best vocational trainer that I can be at the same time I really want Racing with Autism to be a future, not just for me, but for the racers as well. If we can create a program that can eventually have them employed, that eventually can have them having experiences that they may not have experienced before. If we can, if we can travel, we’re already starting to, to build really great connections. We have an ongoing relationship with a large V8 Supercar Team and their owner who I can’t give away too much, but we’re about to have a media release about our collaboration with them, which is a massive step. And I think I’m open to what comes at menext. I’m so close to a few different personal goals as well in the next month or so they’re, they’re my priority. But obviously continuing my career. But making Racing with Autism as big and as best as it can be, so that the right people are affected by it and affected in a good way. So, if I can create a program more or less that my nephew who may not be able to gain, let’s call it general employment. If we can create something for him where he’s got something that he’s passionate about, that he can go into later on in life then that’s excellent. And not just for him because he’s, my nephew. But for everybody in this with autism, they’ve all got something to offer and you know, how cool would it be if they were all doing a couple of speaking engagements a week at their local schools or, or something like that. And they would not always need me to be there, they’ll grow into their own people and into their own parts of Racing with Autism as we all grow together,

Geoff

There will be others that will come through.

Jess

Yeah, yeah, that’s right.

Geoff

Fantastic.

But you talked about being winning the Tasmanian Young Achiever with TADPAC Print Service to the Disability Sector Award. And you were not even nominated, not just for your achievements with the RWAA, it was also your personal significant achievements and those that you make the contribution towards on the autism spectrum more generally and through your work. And I think you shared a little bit of a highlight there that one of the owners of the company and direct line manager came to the event with you. It must have been a real thrill for them and for RWAA to feel the validation of what you do within those organisations.

Jess

Absolutely, I mean it was obviously quite public that I was a finalist in and everybody at work knew. And I also had a co-worker come as well, so my mom, my stepdad, my sister was there and one of my good friends, Sarah. And then you have a really special young man in my life who’s safe and he is a young man with Down syndrome. I’ve worked with him since he was in grade seven. We spend time together weekly, normally on a Thursday afternoon and he is my light of every week he brings something to my life that is different to the autism world. That takes me away from everything else that I do and we go out for lunch and we take photos and we, we have, we have fun and he is also a great role model and male figure in my son’s life as well. So Ethan and his mom come along to the awards dinner as well in their family that have supported me for a very long time now and what I do and recently put together, I try my video for skills tags on the achievements of people that have gone through vocational training and Ethan and one of my Racing with Autism racers were part of that video. So, he’s one special young man and quite often, even today to my personal email, I’ve had a couple of people reach out to me just to see if I can give them advice on a couple of different things. And it’s quite often that I am approached within the community for advice around all sorts of all sorts of different things. And I always try my best to, to help as many people as I can. But a lot of the time, a lot of work that I do is voluntary and unpaid and, and that’s how I want it to be. Because if I’ve got, I got a knowledge basket there that people want to use. And I’m going to share that the best I can.

Geoff

Fantastic. You talked a little bit earlier about being in tears on the awards night when you won the award and what a thrill it was. And it’s really rewarding to hear that from our perspective as organizers to know, not that we made you cry was rewarding, but to know that people hold the award with such high regard. And it makes such a difference for them personally and the feeling of adulation, and as I said before, validation of what you do is really thrilling for us know that if people are thinking about making a nomination on behalf of someone, I think about the bigger picture of how many others are on the journey. The benefit and a part of that recognition as well as you’re talking about. It’s not just the peoplethat might be involved with. It’s your broader family, friends, network work, colleagues, et cetera, et cetera, such and the same with sponsors. I’m not sure that we ever get across fully the full benefits of a nomination purely just to be nominated. It’s a thrill, but go on then become a semi finals finalist, and if you’re lucky enough to win an award, is such a far-reaching impact and hopefully ongoing impactfor the work that our winners and our finalists to the community to make a difference is such a beautiful thing and we’re such privileged people to be able to work in theindustry as a you to make a difference for others in the community. Was there something that stands out to you about the award’s gala presentation dinner, held of course, in May as being really special that you’ll never forget?

Jess

That night, the final thrill outside the room. I met a young lady by the name of Bron, and she was nominated for another award in a different category. It was, correct me, I’m not sure of the exact name that transition to work as a young person with a disability. She was a finalist there and she won the people’s choice award, she was excited. And maybe may I struck up a conversation with her and her mom before we went in for the finalist briefing and I looked at Bron’s mom and said, oh I’ll take Bronnie and you’ll come with me and we did the finalist brief together and when we met back order, I sort of explained what was said to a mom and a dad and. And I think probably one of the proudest things for me was seeing the pure joy when she won the people’s choice award. Like it just was how amazing is that to see someone, so beautiful and so talented recognized for me was just amazing. And then the next day when I popped on social media, which was quite busy for me and seeing that Bron’s mom on the business page on the coffee business page have actually thanked me for taking Bron in and thought that I just I guess it’s something that comes natural to me that if you see somebody that you know, it’sa good opportunity to give mom a five minutes to herself or the Bron to have a bit of independence to go in there and to have that recognized by somebody was, was actually really quite remarkable for me. So, there are so many amazing peoplethere that not so many amazing finalists, a young man that was a finalist in my category, actually come across him the other day. He almost looked like he was a bit starstruck and all with the all-star struck by him because he’sa young man on the spectrum who has gone into to support work and supporting others himself. And it would have been great to see him in the other category. I think he would have done really well in that one. And I spoke to the people that nominatedhim actually I thought we should have put with the other one. So, they recognize that now, but when he said, oh you, you won. And I said to him, you know, but I’m inspired and amazed by you as a person. I’ve never actually felt like I wanted something or otherwise, like to be acknowledged. And that are really, really excited to win the Young Achiever Awards. And I think it’s something that I will forever. I’ve actually recently started packing my house because I’m moving to my new house on the weekend now. I packed on my trophy; I haven’t packed my Young Achiever one yet because that’s going to the car.

Geoff

Oh, that’s beautiful to hear. Very, very exciting. Young Achiever nominations are now open across the country for this new program. If anybody would like to find out how to nominate someone or about how to support the awards financially as a sponsor or otherwise head to awardsustralia.com for more information. And as you’ve heard from Jess, it’s very well worthwhile to nominate or nominate someone and help change someone’s life. Do you have any other interests or hobbies, Jess?

Jess

I don’t have much time for anything else. If I’m honest, but I yeah, I spend in the summer on every weekend I’m at a race track or on I’m doing something. I’m passionate about what I’m passionate about. I love my family, I love traveling, which obviously we can’t do that much at the moment, but I just, I like to make people happy. So, the more I can do that that I have here all day, I think.

Geoff

 Makes sense. What’s something we might not know about you?

Jess

I guess I probably read it out of the bag and I don’t think I’ve said too much publicly before, is that I do, I do deal with anxiety issues. And I don’t think that that’s something I’m becoming more and more confident to speak about because I’m starting to learn that maybe, you know, people might who, who also have anxiety can look at me and say, oh, she’s been able to overcome those sorts of things. And it’s actually from my time working with others that I’ve been able to recognize that, that I do have anxiety. And I think that’s been a really big thing for me. Aside from that, I guess something that I’m a really quite public and open person. So, there’s, it’s more of what you say is what you get type thing with me and my sister and I were talking the other day about how different we are as people and, and one of the things that I said to her is that people who achieve publicly and know better or know more talented or know more, they don’t deserve any accolades any more that somebody that achieves privately in a more private way and, and I’m, I’ve certainly been more public and sort of out there than what my sister has and she just recently won the assistant manager of the year award for BCF Australia, which is great. And she had to have a photo for the paper. She was unsure about it and I don’t want to do it where I’dbe like jumping in front of the camera. I guess it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter who you are, how confident you are or everybody’s achievements deserve to be recognized. For me though, it’s been about if my name can be recognised, then what we’re doing with RWAA is getting recognized too because my name is with Racing with Autism Australia. And that’s truly what’s important to me.

Geoff

It’s a good way to think about it because we do have a tall poppy syndrome in Australia, and that’s such a shame where people who stand up and not afraid to acknowledge that what theydo is really important or really good gets shouted down and it’s a tragedy because there is so much good happening that needs to be told and that’s what we’re all about is telling stories, stories, good stories, positive stories, and we need that more than ever.

Jess

Absolutely. And I definitely have the comment of, oh, another one, as in like another nomination, another awarded. And I’ve always put it back to these people is, this isn’t about me looking good. This isn’t about me wanting to be, you know, in the public eye. It’s never been about that it’s, it’s about the programs, it’s about the awards, it’s about be inspiring others to do things it’s, it’s about people being recognized and Racing with Autism Australia being recognized now on a broader scale and even having this opportunity to share my story wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t even nominated for those awards so, but people have different opinions and different theories, but I think it’s, I think it’s really great.

Geoff

And I think if everybody had in mind one word, the world would be a far better place and that is kindness. If we were all kind in our thinking, we would be a lot less bullying. There’d be a lot less negativity, particularly on social media. So anyway, we’re, we’re sidetracking slightly there because what we’re talking about, what you do is so uplifting. Do you have any other words of wisdom for our listeners?

Jess

I think one of the biggest quotes that I’ve ever ever worked of is the future belongs to the people who believe in the beauty of their dreams. I actually got it from a racing movie years ago, believe it or not. And it’s something that I’ve workedtowards. If I’ve got a dream, I’m going to chase it and that’s, that’s going to be my future.

Geoff

Absolutely spot on. I love that quote. And I think you’ve lived that experience. You’ve lived that movie quote yourself through your whole life. I think which is real testament to how much it meant to you when you heard itand how you followed it. So, Jess where can our listeners connect with you online. Your story is amazing and I’m sure there are many who want to learn more.

Jess

Yeah, absolutely. So, we’re really quite big on Facebook so you can find us on Facebook at Racing with Autism Australia or on Instagram at Racing with Autism Australia. Our website is a work in progress, so please bear with us, it’s at www.racingwithaustismaustralia.com.au. Or you can contact me at jesswraa@gmail.com , I look forward to hearing from anybody that’s interested toknow more about us or how you might want to be involved.

Geoff

Jess, it’s been such a pleasure to have you on the podcast now, you are an absolute inspiration. I really appreciate you sharing some of your story today for us to learn more about Racing with Autism Australia. Thank you so much.

 

Jess

Thank you Geoff. Thanks for having me. Thank you very much.

Geoff

I hope you enjoyed today’s interview as much as I have. We would love you to subscribe to our podcast that you won’t miss an episode. Join us each week as we talk with ordinary Australian achieving extraordinary things. Did you know that Awards Australia is a family owned business that proudly makes a difference in the lives of those who make a difference for others. And we thank our corporate not for profit partners to making award programs possible. Do you know someone that’s making a difference or maybe your business might like to sponsor an award. Contact us through our Instagram page, inspirational.Australians will head to our website, awardsaustralia.com, it would be great if you could share this episode with your network because who doesn’t like a good news story, and please rate and review us. We would really love to hear your thoughts until next week. Stay safe and remember, together we make a difference.

 

Annette

Thanks for joining us today from the inspirational Australian’s podcast. We hope you enjoyed listening and have been inspired by ordinary Australians achieving extraordinary things. So it’s goodbye for another week. Remember, together we make a difference.