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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 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!"
Mandi Sibley’s experience is that of many women: she devoted herself to bringing up her children and then when she was ready to return to the workplace, she was terrified her skills would let her down. Her lack of self-confidence had been compounded by a series of personal knocks, a bad car accident, post natal depression and breaking up from her partner.
With four children, Mandi had spent limited spells in work and was dependent on benefits. Her braver self told her she wanted to have more control over her future, but deserted her when it came to making positive changes.
Then she came to the Surrey Care Trust and our adult learning programme, FACE. She took several free courses but it was a course in Indian head massage which helped Mandi crystallise her ambitions. She and others on the course took their studies further and after training in several other therapies, the women set up Holistic Harmony, a business to provide treatments at affordable prices.
Mandy says she is now confident, happy and self-assured. " I am looking forward to a brighter future and the possibilities of taking my training to self-employment and supporting myself and my family."
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Steven became unhappy at school when he was bullied and always found it hard to fit in. He spent a year at college but never really settled there either. Then, he came on a Surrey Care Trust STEPS Ahead course to help unemployed young people find work, training or further education and he gained new friends and new confidence. The course helped him to focus on what he is good at and what he would like to do for a living.
As a next step, Steven, who is interested in working as a carer, has become a volunteer with the Surrey Care Trust's Swingbridge community boats. He is enjoying learning new skills in boat crewing and is helping to look after the hundreds of people from Surrey community groups who come on Swingbridge for trips along the Basingstoke Canal and River Wey during the spring and summer.
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Leanne is bright, bubbly, ambitious and it is hard to believe that she struggled to fit into school.... and her school struggled wth her! When she came to the Surrey Care Trust's Woking Learning Centre two years ago she was so disruptive her teachers found her almost impossible to educate. Her time on our STEPS Under 16s programme has 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.
Leanne has moved on to college to train as a hairdresser and sees herself in five years time working for a London salon, perhaps one day owning her own business.
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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.”
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