From California to Toowoomba: Bianca’s journey to HPHH

Migrating from California, United States as a child, Bianca has lived all over Australia. From the Northern Rivers Region to Melbourne to Brisbane to Toowoomba, it's safe to say Bianca is well-travelled! Not only is she an avid globe trotter, but so is her cat. Her obsession with Australia’s ‘Big Thing’ landmarks often leads her down ‘the roads less travelled’. On her road trip from Melbourne to Toowoomba, she took her cat along for the ride (Bianca, her cat Charlie and the Big Strawberry pictured). 

Having lived in Toowoomba for 4 years and working at HPHH for 2.5 of them, Bianca says she loves everything about the country town, apart from the absence of a nearby beach. Clearly, you can take the girl out of California, but you can’t take the California out of the girl. 

Bianca first joined HPHH as a placement student when completing her Certificate IV in Disability. Looking for something ‘left of centre’ from your standard disability provider, HPHH fit in perfectly with her love of animals - particularly cats.  

“I think (cats) are endlessly fascinating, absolutely hilarious, loving and unexpected creatures. I love changing people’s opinions when they say cats aren’t affectionate,” Bianca says. 

After completing her placement with us, Bianca was hired as a casual trainer before being asked to join us full-time in May 2021. She said yes and hasn’t looked back since! She’s currently our Senior Trainer at HPHH Toowoomba, heading up her small but mighty team. When reflecting on why the role was the right fit for her, she said she loves how different HPHH is from anything else. 

“I also really loved the idea of not just providing a meaningful experience for our human participants, but also the different ways that the programs work together with the partner organisation,” Bianca says. 

Bianca also loves working closely with our location partner in Toowoomba, the RSPCA. She enjoys being in the shelter, knowing that she is helping the staff, the animals and the participants. 

“I feel like I am really included as part of the team here, where not only do we get to help them through enriching the animals’ lives, but the AAs actively look for fun jobs for us to do and go out of their way to make sure we know about the HPHH suitable animals,” she says. 

“It’s so rewarding knowing that you’ve saved someone an hour in their day by cleaning or making up food enrichment and seeing the participants take pride in knowing that too." 

In her time at HPHH, she says there are too many memories to pick a specific favourite. It’s the little things that stay with Bianca, like a group initiating conversation with each other unprompted, something that may seem small but is a huge accomplishment for them. 

Bestowing on us some ‘paw-some’ advice she chooses to live by, Bianca says: “A support worker once told me this Maya Angelou quote: ‘At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.’” 

A testament to this, Bianca’s connection to our participants is clear from the moment they meet. From our recent Explore launch, participants said they felt confident speaking to giant media outlets like ABC, mainly because Bianca was there and made them feel comfortable. Her ability to connect with her participants and make them feel understood is beautiful to witness.