MATTHEW SMITH

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN THE INDUSTRY: 11 years in the disability sector.

MY ABILITIES: I'm sporty and creative! I played in a band for years! During my tennis coaching career, one of my greatest achievements was seeing one of my clients play at the Australian Open.

MY STORY:

I'm the youngest of three siblings, with an older brother who's a school teacher and a sister who's a librarian. I grew up in Altona, attending Altona West Primary School, where I started playing tennis very young. Later, I moved on to St. Paul's College for years 7-10 before completing my VCE at Williamstown High in 2001/2002.

Both of my parents worked during my childhood, so after school most days, I would walk to my mum's workplace: a residential support house. Being around people with disabilities from a young age was completely normalised for me.

Early on, I cultivated a genuine passion for tennis and dedicated myself to mastering the sport, eventually achieving my goal of becoming a tennis coach. I began my coaching career at South Kingsville Tennis Club for 3 years. I then started coaching young groups at the Liston Tennis Club in Williamstown by the age of 15. I progressed further by achieving a significant milestone and became one of the youngest coaches to graduate from TCAV coaching level 1 at 15 years old and level 2 at the age of 17 years old. I then started working at the prestigious Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club before coming back to my neighbourhood. I quickly became the head coach of Altona Tennis Club to finally run independently the Werribee Central Tennis Club. Later on, I discovered that my favourite aspect of coaching was working with beginner groups and social players of all ages and abilities.

While the first half of my life was focused on sports, I fostered a love for music towards the end of high school. I played in a band with one of my best childhood friends outside of work, performing in Melbourne and across the country for about 15 years.

My mother, Christina, has always been a support worker. While I was coaching, she was part of a team managing a larger organization that needed access to engagement in sports. After negotiating an alternative program that was more accessible for participants and carers, my journey into disability support began in 2013 when I interviewed to be a support worker.

The organisation was struggling with a lot of young adults not participating in programs or programs not tailored to their needs. This problem was discussed during my interview and I instantly wanted to be part of the solution. The idea of creating tailored programs to empower young adults with disabilities to do more sports became my mission. A lot of challenges came my way, but relentless efforts and meeting some outstanding colleagues, helped me to pursue my goal of improving the life of these young adults with disabilities. We finally successfully created 1 on 1 support program involving sports but also tailored sensory activities and daily grind activities programs that were needed for them. It was a key to a more independent, meaningful and fun lifestyle for those young adults.

The program was so successful that it still runs to this day.

Through those years I became close to a few of my work colleagues, especially one who had the same passion as me, Sisay. Through our work together we met some incredible support workers and some parents devoted to the best life for their kids with disabilities. We worked hand in hand with them to make sure it happened and it has been extremely rewarding.

Ultimately, One day, out of nowhere, one of those parents suggested that we set up our venture…and it didn’t take too long before we decided to jump in and continue spreading the love our way…

A year later we created our own company.

Plus one all abilities was born!

Matt.