# YWeAreHere for Young People | YMCA Victoria
# YWeAreHere for Young People | YMCA Victoria
CLICK TO WATCH | 0:50
197
Then came Covid-19 . Government restrictions meant that from March most of the business ( Y activities and services being mainly face-to-face ) from recreation centres to camps , pools and offices , had to close . The impact was huge : more than 5,200 staff had to be stood down . Shane Riddle ’ s job started to look very different : “ I could never have predicted that my first nine months with theYMCA would see us faced with a pandemic that would see the majority of the business closed ! But while it has been a difficult time for the organisation and our
5,500 staff , I am proud of what we ’ ve been able to achieve and how we have utilised technology to innovate through this tough period .”
In early April , Australia ’ s Federal Government , introduced the JobKeeper initiative to minimise job losses . “ We knew this would be of great assistance for thousands of our staff ,” says Riddle . “ However it took several weeks to pass JobKeeper through parliament and into legislation .” The details of the process were not clear , nor what the government expected from employers to facilitate
technologymagazine . com