Striker achieving big goals – one by one

South Auckland woman Danielle (Dan) Zam is on a winning streak – from doing “nothing” with her life, she is now doing more activities than ever before, thanks to support from Enliven Individualised Funding and Real World Living.

The 38-year-old, who lives in Papakura and has an intellectual disability, admits that previously her living situation was not ideal.

Three years ago, she linked up with Real World Living, a disability service and support organisation, who worked with her on setting goals and achieving them.

Enliven Individualised Funding was brought in to help achieve these goals through disability support funding for various activities.

Dan’s first goal was to get her own flat, which Individualised funding helped her get into as it allowed her to arrange support for Enliven household management, cooking and cleaning.

“I’ve got a cat that moults so badly – she drops her fur everywhere, so every day I have to vacuum her fur up,” she says.

Dan’s second major goal was to get her full driver’s licence, which she achieved after using her funding for extra driving lessons.

Her third goal was to do photography lessons which was enabled through respite care funding.

Dan was so successful that she won a national IHC photography competition with a photo of a native whio duck.

Her passion is taking photos of big cats and other animals, which she plans to collate into a photography book.

That’s not the end of Dan’s achievements. One of her dreams was to play soccer again, a sport she hadn’t played for many years. She looked into various local soccer teams and in the end chose Drury, where she has completed a successful season playing in her favourite position – striker.

As if this wasn’t enough, she has furthermore completed and passed a first aid course through Hato Hone St John.

Next on her list is getting a security license and eventually obtaining work as a security guard at sports events, concerts and other venues.

Dan is now doing more activities than ever before with the assistance from Enliven with support to use her Individualised funding in a way that really suits her needs.

Her agent from Real World Living, Jackie Turvey, says Enliven is great to work with.

“They always pay on time and if there are any problems, they sort them out straight away – we find them very helpful

“We’re proud of Dan ticking off her goals – we set them together and thanks to Enliven, we together make them happen.”