Month: October 2019

HeadsUp participants at Signpost Greenstead have made some great progress during the month of September.

Our Peer Support Worker has been supporting a participant by suggesting some changes to his CV and organising work experience at a local community centre, and this has all resulted in him now enjoying his new role as a Customer Retention Agent for a local company.

Another participant had dropped out of University after his first year, and was referred to the HeadsUp project by Health In Mind. He lacked focus and found it hard to identify the type of work that would be right for him. After working closely with his Peer Support Worker for almost a year he has been able to reapply to the University of Essex and will be re-commencing his degree in Biomedical Science in October – such a great outcome for all involved.

HeadsUp also support those who wish to find a suitable training course and we have one person starting a “Counselling Skills Level 2” course at Adult Community Learning in Colchester and another looking to complete her SIA training to become a CCTV operative. For some, anxiety can prove a barrier to attending external training courses so we have helped people look at online provision instead so that small steps are still being taken to reach their goals.

None of this would have been possible without the time and support of the HeadsUp Peer Support Worker, and it’s great to see so many of our participants making such amazing progress. Well done to them all!

Whilst our participants are keen to find a job and boost experience, some also volunteer in our offices. One enthusiastic participant in Jaywick has been doing just this along with regular sessions with her Peer Support Worker, attending interview skills session and more recently joining a new art club run by local artist Mark.

Artists had to write down 8 positive things about themselves then lay on the floor on a 6ft sheet of paper and have their outline drawn around them! The following week they started to fill in the outline with their artistic interpretation of the 8 things they had written about themselves.

The group have had a great time, make new friends and work together as a team. Over time the art will be added to and photographed in various locations, including on the beach and in the local fields to catch differences of light.

Having received support finding employment along with taking advantage of all of the other positive activity on offer with HeadsUp, our volunteer from Jaywick is now leaving the project to go on to do an Accredited Customer Service training course to support her desire to become a receptionist – an excellent outcome for her as she is so determined and hard working.