When Kirrie Arms started university, a career in community services wasn’t part of the plan.
Her path into the sector came together gradually, shaped by curiosity, further study and a willingness to try something new.
“I just thought I would milk cows forever,” Kirrie laughed. “I went to uni for something to do.”
Kirrie studied criminology before completing postgraduate study in child and adolescent mental health, but spent much of her working life in agriculture as a dairy farmer.
It was a pathway that might seem a world away from her role today as an Integrated Family Services Practitioner at Brophy Family & Youth Services.
But looking back, Kirrie says her career has been less about following a predetermined path and more about discovering the kind of work that matters to her.
After agriculture, she moved into a client support and administration role with The Orange Door. While it gave her an introduction to the community services sector, she soon realised she wanted something different.
“I think what I was lacking was being in the thick of it with people — sitting with people in the yuck and hard stuff,” Kirrie said.
“I came to a point where I just thought, ‘I don’t know what to do.’”
A conversation that opened a door
That uncertainty eventually led Kirrie to Brophy.
After being encouraged to get in touch, she spoke with a Brophy manager about the possibility of working in the sector.
Kirrie remembers the conversation as a turning point.
“She just opened up a whole world,” she said.
“She gave me the time of day. She didn’t owe me anything. She just said, ‘What do you want to do?’
“I didn’t think I had any qualifications or any hope of entering the sector at all. I was down and out and didn’t know what to do.
“But she talked me through it and said there were so many opportunities. It was basically, ‘Have a look, come and talk to people, find what you want to do and we’ll see how we can make it happen.’”
Kirrie spoke with people across several Brophy programs and applied for a number of roles.
The opportunity that eventually came up was one she hadn’t initially expected: Home-Based Care.
“Some miraculous way, I ended up in that role,” she said.
“And that’s how I ended up in the field and at Brophy. Brophy was just so welcoming. It was, ‘What do you want to do? We have all these different programs. Find what you’re interested in and we’ll help you work out how to get there.’”
Finding meaning in the difficult moments
Home-Based Care gave Kirrie the opportunity she had been looking for: to work directly alongside people experiencing challenging circumstances.
It also helped her understand what she valued most about community services.
“The privilege is being able to sit with people in the yuck and see them as human beings,” she said.
“Not seeing them for their behaviour or for their struggles, but just extending that humanness.
“It’s like, I’m a person too. We all go through stuff.
“To have the opportunity to sit with someone in that and then hopefully see some positive outcomes — that’s the goal.”
Kirrie has since moved from Home-Based Care into Brophy’s Integrated Family Services team.
While she initially expected the two roles to feel completely different, she quickly discovered they shared an important common thread.
“I thought it was going to be completely different worlds,” she said.
“But it’s still sitting with families who are going through stuff and being there for them. And I get to hang out with the kids, which is fun too
“They’re vastly different roles, but you still get that privilege of stepping into people’s lives.”
One of the biggest differences has been the opportunity to work more proactively.
“In Home-Based Care, it’s constantly crisis, constantly responding to things,” Kirrie said.
“Whereas with IFS — don’t get me wrong, there can still be a crisis — but we can actually sit in the calm and be more strategic and plan.
“There’s a lot of preventative work. We can sit with families and say, ‘How are we going to make this better? How are we going to work through this?’”
No two days necessarily look the same.
Kirrie’s work can include visiting families at home, meeting young people at schools, working with families in the community, attending appointments or advocating alongside them when other services are involved.
Sometimes that means supporting a family while Child Protection is closely involved. At other times, it can mean helping them adjust when that involvement reduces.
“Child Protection can come across as scary, but them stepping away can be scary too,” Kirrie said.
“So it’s walking alongside the family through that as well.”
The value of an integrated organisation
For Kirrie, one of Brophy’s greatest strengths is that families rarely need support in just one area of their lives.
Mental health, housing, family relationships, family violence, financial pressures and a young person’s wellbeing can all intersect.
Working within a large, integrated organisation means she can draw on expertise from people across Brophy when a family needs additional support.
“I love it,” Kirrie said.
“We are so privileged. You might be working with a teenager who’s going through something and you can pick up the phone and talk to someone in youth homelessness or headspace.
“Or maybe mum and dad have just been evicted and there’s nowhere to go, and you can link in with another team.
“It doesn’t really matter what you’re working through with a client — there are other teams that can support. Everyone is so open with their time and their knowledge.”
Those existing relationships can also make it easier for clients to engage with another service.
Rather than simply handing someone a phone number or asking them to approach a completely unfamiliar organisation, Kirrie can often introduce them to a colleague she already knows and trusts.
“It breaks down the barrier,” she said.
“A young person might not want to go to another service, and you can say, ‘Actually, I know this person. They’re a trusted person. I can come and sit with you.’
“Then suddenly it’s not as scary because they’re part of Brophy too.”
Growing by stepping outside the comfort zone
Kirrie says the opportunities she has had across different Brophy programs have also helped build her confidence and professional skills.
Her description of that growth is characteristically colourful.
“You turn into Elastigirl,” she laughed.
“Sometimes you’re so far outside your comfort zone and you’re thinking, ‘I never thought I’d be here.’
“Then you get through it and another opportunity comes up and you think, ‘I remember that random time I had to deal with something like this.’”
For Kirrie, knowing there is support behind her has made stepping into those unfamiliar situations possible.
“My team leader is amazing at encouraging you and saying, ‘You’re going to do this, and it’s going to build you.’
“Otherwise, you might never step out.
“You end up with all these tools because you get put into all these different situations, but you’ve always got the backing too.
“Even when you’re thinking, ‘I’ve got no idea what I’m doing,’ someone’s got your back somewhere.”
It’s a long way from the career Kirrie imagined — or didn’t imagine — when she was studying criminology and working on a dairy farm.
And that’s exactly why her advice to someone thinking about entering community services is simple: Start a conversation.
“I’ve actually had someone recently who was interested in the field and I said, ‘You just need to talk to Brophy,’” Kirrie says.
“You don’t know what you could be into yet. You don’t necessarily know what you’ll like.
“I wouldn’t be in this amazing role today if I hadn’t just made the phone call and said, ‘Please help me.’
“My advice is just go and have a chat. Nothing bad happens from having a conversation.
“You might find something you never knew was there.”
For Kirrie, that one conversation helped turn an unexpected career move into work she now loves.
“I never thought I’d be here,” she says.
“But Brophy opened up a whole world.”
Check out Brophy’s current vacancies here.