I have been very fortunate to work with many dedicated people over the years. Although these comments reflect the parents or professional’s appreciation for the travel-training service, much of the success is also attributed to their effort, motivation, and trust.
I was given the task of travel-training a service user I case manage at our day centre. I found this a daunting prospect without much guidance on how to go about this process. Thank goodness for Desirée! She came in, assessed the service user and provided a simple, stress-free strategy to travel-train him and work with the skills he already had. Her strategy focused on gradually allowing him to feel more and more independent rather than relying on staff prompting. He is well on his way to being able to travel independently, a victory for him and a great relief for his mother. I am so grateful for Desirée’s support, her friendly and professional demeanour and thorough travel-training strategies which will make a huge impact on the life and independence of this service user.
Kind regards,
Keith
[Allied case manager]
Dear Desirée,
The staff and students would like to thank you for providing travel-training to students and staff. Due to your generous time, effort, and patience you successfully trained all students to independently travel from home to their College courses. In achieving this all students have gained an invaluable ‘Life Skill.’
Yours sincerely,
Deana Holmes
Special Education Coordinator
Dear Desirée,
We haven’t met (hopefully that will be remedied!) but I wanted to write to tell you how grateful I am for what you are doing for Neil. It seems you are having an enormous success with his travel-training which in turn is having a spill-over effect on his levels of confidence. I’m delighted as it is a most crucial step towards independence.
Over the years of Neil’s life I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who have actually done something positive for him. Lots of assessments and fine words but very little action! I am full of admiration that someone like yourself should take so much trouble over the ‘nitty gritty’ and it much raises my estimation of human nature.
There is such a poverty of services for people like Neil and yet with relatively little help they can become more or less independent – a good investment but it takes patience and vision.
Once again my very sincere thanks,
Beverly Cross
Dearest Desirée,
We sincerely thank you for your tireless work setting up the school and working with the new teachers and students at the Institute. Independence is not prized as you know in this country especially for the disabled, but you somehow managed to help us overcome these cultural barriers and now the children are travelling in their communities confidently and independently with support from their parents and community leaders. The Minister for Education has recently granted us Rs. 10 million to continue the great work of the school for which we are very grateful. Thank you Desirée – we will always remember you as a founder and friend of this school. We look forward to many years collaboration with you.
Yours sincerely,
Sadia Kishwar
Director – Lahore Trust Institute
Dear Desirée,
Sincerely – thank you for your support in training our daughter Justine to travel to her special school in Mortdale. You are the kindest most caring person and Justine has really taken a shine to you. You have been a special person in her life. I have now travel-trained Justine to her work experience job at Lakes side, and thank you for your many helpful suggestions. We thank you sincerely for your help and now Justine’s confidence in her abilities is growing and travel-training is no longer an insurmountable obstacle. She now travels all the way from home at Beacon to Landsdale (two buses!) Thank you for your wonderful service.
Yours sincerely,
Liz Bensley
Dear Desirée,
Just wanted to say thank you with immeasurable gratitude for being an amazing teacher/mentor of travel-training, and the contribution you have made to our school. I cannot begin to thank you enough for the opportunity you gave our teachers, students, and their parents sharing your knowledge and expertise – guiding us to success. I was a little doubtful before I met you about our students learning travel-training skills but thank you for believing in us all and our abilities to succeed.
We hope to see you soon when we commence a new school year with more new students!
Dev Poole
Principal
Dear Desiree,
Before I met you I was very cynical about Belinda achieving any travel-training goals. We thought it would be too hard, take too much time, and we doubted her ability to cross roads and travel on buses and trains. How wrong we were! Thank you for showing us the way to train our daughter in a positive and achievable way. You have changed our lives and we will always be very grateful to you.
Your sincerely,
Cindy Perkins
Dear Desiree,
Just have to express our enormous gratitude. Words really are inadequate for the help you have given our son Stuart, which flows on to our entire family of course.
I am quite sure I’d still be holding Stuart’s hand to cross every road if we hadn’t had the benefit of the “Desiree Method.” I was very lucky to have heard your name through other parents.
Again, inadequate as it seems, THANK YOU so much for your help, support, kindness and understanding over these past few years. I feel we Johnson’s are very lucky indeed to meet you Desiree, and we wish you all the best in the future.
Faithfully,
Rosie Johnson
Dear Desiree,
Thank you for all your care over the years. By making Penny independent in her travel to work, sports club, and now Mitchell Street, you have transformed our lives.
With love,
Pat, Jason, and Penny