Real people, real stories
Read some of the individual stories of people we have supported to make positive, lasting change in their lives.
Rebekah’s story
Rebekah started volunteering with our FareShare Glasgow and the West of Scotland social enterprise five days a week during lockdown.
Staff recommended that she apply for our employability training, which gave her the opportunity to gain SQA qualifications, food hygiene and manual handling training, and secure her forklift license.
After increasing her skills and confidence, Rebekah started to help oversee the new trainees on the warehouse floor, showing other young people how to do their tasks well.
Rebekah is now employed as a Development Worker with Move On, as part of the team delivering our employability training.
Finlay’s story
Finlay started volunteering with Move On Wood Recycling last summer and now volunteers every Thursday. He has a hands-on role, supporting our social enterprise in a variety of ways, including helping with wood collections across Edinburgh and the Lothians; removing nails from wood; and weighing bags of wood to be sold.
Finlay has also spent time with our staff one-to-one, learning how to use the different tools in our workshop.
Finlay is currently at college part-time and says what he hopes to get out of his time volunteering with us is “to learn more about working so I can get a job in the future.”
The favourite parts of his role are “working to remove all the nails and also going to different places in the van. It doesn’t get boring.”
Ann’s story
We matched Ann with her mentor Olga as an opportunity to meet new people and boost her self-confidence. Ann says “I’m an introvert so I would like to step out of my comfort zone.”
Ann and Olga took part in various activities together, including bowling and rock climbing, which Ann had never done before. These activities helped Ann gain new experiences and skills.
Ann says she would “definitely recommend the mentoring service to other young people because it was a valuable experience for me. I have met new people and tried new things that I never thought I would be capable of.”
Martin’s story
Martin unfortunately lost his job during the pandemic, but was able to access multiple training and experience opportunities at our FareShare Glasgow and the West of Scotland social enterprise, including:
- Passing his driving test
- Completing his forklift operator training
- Achieving qualifications in food handling and hygiene
- Securing paid work placements
Martin is now employed with Move On as a Development Worker. He says “I went from effectively nothing to being permanently employed with an awful lot more training than I had beforehand.”