October is always a special time of the year where we acknowledge length of service milestones, this year ranging from five to an incredible 40 years – that’s a collective total of 3505 years of experience!

During the Celebration of Ageing Well events, 350 staff from across Victoria and Tasmania will be recognised and receive a certificate and gift acknowledging their 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 or 40 years of service milestone. CEO Andrew Kinnersly attended most of the celebrations.

Each certificate is a timeline marker acknowledging individual commitment and the value this brings to our organisation and to our customers. While every staff member has a unique story, the joy of assisting older people to live their best lives is a consistent theme.

A huge congratulations to all.

While all the celebrations are important there are a number of sites that are celebrating a significant number of milestones including:

• 38 staff at Strathdon Community are being recognised for years of service – making it the site with the highest number of milestone length of service recipients across the organisation.Strathdon Residential Services Manager Calton Ngwenya, who has been at the site since 2018, believes the secret to Strathdon’s retention of staff is about staff working together as a cohesive group supporting each other to achieve a common goal: serving the older people they are entrusted with caring for with compassion and kindness.“Respect and a culture that encourages teamwork is key,” explains Calton. “It’s also about acknowledging staff so they feel truly appreciated and know they are valued; to always be approachable and open to discussions, including the challenging conversations; and empowering people to have the confidence to make decisions within their scope of practice.”
• Noble Park Community will celebrate 17 staff milestones
• Melbourne West Metro home care team based at the new Community Hub in Braybrook is recognising 19 staff
• Melbourne East Metro home care team at the Burwood East Hub has 17 staff receiving recognition
• In Tasmania, the highest number of service milestone recipients are Mornington Community Lillian Martin and Sorell Community Ningana (both with 14), followed by Rosetta Community Strathaven with 11.
• The Corporate services teams will gather at Wesley Place to recognise the service of 26 staff.

We’re delighted to share stories from Glen Brun and Robyn Roberts, just two of the 2025 Years of Service Milestone recipients.