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Henry’s story
Henry had been through a turbulent period of his life when he first came to Swingbridge and his confidence and optimism about his future were at an all-time low. He started helping with the Swingbridge summer trips we run for people from local community groups. Cruising down the River Wey or Basingstoke Canal is a gentle way to spend a few hours and its tranquillity was a salve for Henry’s battered self-esteem. “When you have spent a few hours on a trip with a group of children with disabilities and you see the enjoyment on their faces you know you have done something worthwhile,” he says.
Henry also makes a huge contribution to the environmental training work that is the foundation of the Swingbridge programme, so is out in all weathers, hours with chainsaw removing trees, with scythe cutting back vegetation or thigh deep in water clearing weed. He has gained new skills and qualified as a skipper.
“I hadn’t had any experience with boats before this, so I have learned all kinds of skills I would never have dreamt of before. Swingbridge and the Surrey Care Trust has meant a lot to me. It’s given me my self-confidence back and that is the most important thing of all.”
Every life tells a story
Leanne’s story
Leanne is bright, bubbly, ambitious and it is hard to believe that she struggled to fit into school.... and that her school struggled wth her! Before she came to the Surrey Care Trust's Woking Learning Centre at the age of 14 she was so disruptive her teachers had found her almost impossible to educate.
Her time on our STEPS Under 16s programme transformed her attitude and her self-confidence.
A real breakthrough for Leanne was spending a day a week back at her old school, mentoring younger students who were disaffected and disruptive and at risk of wasting their school years.
“I have been given a second chance and I am going to make the most of it,” she said.
She worked consistently and conscientously while at STEPS and moved on to train as a hairdresser. She keeps in touch and is doing well. A recent piece of news was that she had bought herself a car. Her ambition is to work for a London salon, perhaps one day owning her own business.
Ross's story
Ross's ambition is to get back into paid work after a traumatic period in his life when the idea of holding down a job seemed to have become a distant dream. Ross had worked for many years as a skilled upholsterer but as work became scarcer, life started to go wrong. His income dropped, he became homeless and was convicted for an offence for which he narrowly missed a prison sentence.
Given this reprieve, Ross became an enthusiastic participant in a Back to Work course for offenders run by the Surrey Care Trust’s FACE team, returning as a volunteer to support the next group of offenders.
Willing to retrain if necessary, he gained a basic qualification in horticulture while working on a project run jointly by Surrey Care Trust, Surrey Area Probation and High Down Prison at Sutton. His determined attitude has now helped him secure a volunteering place and a potential paid job using his existing upholstery skills.
"When I met Cathy and Raquela from Surrey Care Trust, I had already fallen lower than I thought possible in my life. In fact you could quite easily say I was on the bones of my backside! Some through my own doing and some through bad luck or judgement! I thought less of myself than anybody else could have done! Greeted with a friendly disposition from both Rags and Cathy helped me with my confidence and gave me the will to try again! I knew I was a decent person when working and was always ‘Mr Happy’ to everybody else but that had all ebbed away from me! Without a doubt in my mind, I know that without the great service I received from Surrey Care Trust I would not be able to stand on my own ... now I know I can!"
“Without the great service I received from Surrey Care Trust I would not be able to stand on my own ... now I know I can!"
Find out more
Working with young people at STEPS
FACE, our adult learning programme
“I have been given a second chance and I am going to make the most of it.”
“Swingbridge and the Surrey Care Trust has meant a lot to me. It’s given me my self-confidence back and that is the most important thing of all.”