Kylie Richardson doesn’t plan to change a thing now she’s the chief executive officer at Myrtle Cottage.
“If you’re not prepared as manager to do all the jobs, you shouldn’t have the top job,’’ she tells the South West Voice.
Ms Richardson believes that staying connected makes you a better leader.
“I always go for a walk downstairs where the members are, and I promised myself if I got this job I would not stop doing that,’’ she says.
“I have always got stuck in and done whatever needed to be done and that won’t change.
“You need the support of your staff but also the people you are supporting.’’
Three years ago, in the middle of a certain pandemic, Kylie Richardson came on board Myrtle Cottage as second in command to CEO Elizabeth Delcasse, who has now retired.
While she has lived in Wilton with her family for the past 23 years, Ms Richardson is Campbelltown born and bred.
“We mostly lived in Bradbury, and when I was young I was with the local pony club, and have ridden horses all my life,’’ Ms Richardson said.
She has also worked in this area all her working life – and pretty much in the sector Myrtle Cottage is in.
The longest stint was almost 17 years with St Vincent de Paul, based in Eagle Vale, but it all started when she held a clerical job with the Education Department, at the Liverpool regional office.
“There was a lot of work with disengaged children in the office and as they’d come in they were all over the place – and I had a real connection with them,’’ she says.
Seeing this connection, some colleagues suggested she’d take it further by going back to study.
“They were saying to become a teacher, and I said, no, I think I want to work with young people.’’
She studied community welfare and business management, among other courses, and eventually landed at Vinnies from there.
Ms Richardson, after a 12 month secondment at Campbelltown Council’s community development section overseeing their team, ended up going to work for another service provider, Focus Connect.
“Then this position at Myrtle Cottage came up and I thought, you know what, it completes my circle of learning and working with community,’’ she says.
“I had worked with youth, homeless, domestic violence, families struggling, community development and thought, I hadn’t seen any work with aged and disability.
“I knew of Myrtle Cottage – everyone in Macarthur I think knows of Myrtle Cottage.
“The next minute I was here; and I am really enjoying it.’’
The next big thing for Myrtle Cottage, which has been providing its aged, disability and dementia services for almost 50 years, is expansion into Camden and Wollondilly, to meet the demand caused by large population growth in the past two decades.
Myrtle Cottage is one of the few organisations that offers a one on one service, using volunteers and staff.
“More funding in this area, for dementia services, would be amazing,’’ says the new CEO.
But she makes it clear that just as important is having more volunteers.
“During Covid we lost a lot of volunteers, and without our volunteers we would really struggle,’’ she says.
“We love them, we appreciate the work that they do; they complement the work the team does here.
“If I had a magic wand, it would be great to have another four to six drivers.’’
