© Simon Lees
I started off being in care due to family problems as mum turned really ill. Unfortunately she was that ill that she couldn’t look after me any longer. I moved from place to place for couple of months then I found a place where I thought I would have been really happy at staying. Due to me staying where I was I was always running away from home and not turning up as I was missing staying at home with my family. I managed to get into a full time training doing catering, really enjoying it, but due to what was going at home with my foster carer I started to run away and never kept in contact so I turned to alcohol and drugs. I was currently turning up to training under the influence from the night before and the police turning up at the training to see how I was asking the usual question what they would have had to use. After staying there for the period I was there for, I finally finished my full training doing the catering. I had currently had my own place. I got offered supported care that’s when I finally realised that I couldn’t carry on how I am going on that I need to get away from where I was staying and get myself back on track again. So I finally moved and found myself a full time job that I really loved working in and meeting new people, I enjoyed going to work and serving food but mainly like being on the bar and being in the catering industry. One thing came to an end that I had to leave there and find a different job further away which I worked for a short period of time, that’s when I realised that I couldn’t carry on doing this type of work I had to move away as the area was too quiet for me to carry on staying there as I wasn’t getting along with the people I was staying with etc. So I started to look for my own place again back to the place I was staying due to the fact that mum was a lot better and staying there and I wanted to be closer to home again and actually have my own place and now that’s been 3 years I have been there and totally love having it and yes there’s times that do come that I get bored or feel a bit lonely that I go and stay with my family for couple of nights and have that company again.
As time went on I ended up going through hell at this point and ended up breaking the law and getting into trouble and got referred to an organisation where I was staying and one day Venture Trust had come out and discuss what they do as a service and I was really interested and getting to know more about Venture Trust as that’s when I started working with them. They started telling me about all the different courses they had and I went on the Next Steps course for 5 days away for like a wee break and then a few months later I went on the Living Wild course. They explained to me that there is a course coming up called “Chance for Change” a programme that takes people who have offended out into the Scottish Highlands on a 10 day personal development course and helps them clear their head and set goals to be achieved when I returned home. I felt a lot better going on that course and my confidence grown upon me.
Few months again after that I got introduce to another course called Reaching Higher. It’s based in Glasgow and I attended for 5 days for 5 weeks to work on any support I needed and get ready for going back to work. Went through a few interview stages and got told that day that I have been successful for the course. The feeling I had that day was unbelievable – I had the opportunity to turn my life around and start fresh again even though a was travelling a good bit away from home but that still didn’t bother me for having this chance again. So in the course there was a joint leadership with Venture Trust, Move On and Who Cares Scotland and the course was based on the 3 of them and there was 10 job opportunities came up through Community Jobs Scotland and whoever was successful would go through as a trainee which ever job title they went for. I was successful for the 2 jobs I applied for but the trainee development worker was more drawn to me, as it was more around youth work and that’s what I wanted to do was to get into that industry and work with young people and help people who’ve been affected with similar issues that I have. I came through to Move On for a couple of days for work experience to get the feel of how it was like and find out what they actually do
So what is it I do at Move On?
I started at Move On 6 months ago. Soon as I started I was really nervous getting to know the staff and finding out more information about the organisation as I didn’t know what Move On was about. I was really looking forward to starting here as I had no experience working with young people, youth work and doing workshops in schools. As the days, weeks, months went on I manage to find my whereabouts around at Move On and find out more about the mentoring process and what types of databases they use, meet some of the volunteers, mentor training, training, setting up organisations meetings and the list goes on really. Being here at Move On I have made a massive progress from where I was years ago and made me a better person than I was there I guess. I understand more of the culture and that youth work covers a lot more than I gathered it would be. I eventually got to do some shadowing to get the feel of how to do things but everyone does do it a certain way and see how it’s done the correct way. After a while I managed to get a young person to take the lead on and set that young person up with a volunteer mentor. Going out to schools and meeting young people doing the workshops I always thought there’s going to be no way I could manage to do something like this but I have grown on my confidence and got along with everyone there. Move On made a big impact on me as a person there nothing wrong I could say about the organisation and would definitely recommend the organisation to anyone who needs support.
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