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Project lead
The project lead for the Getting a Life project in Torbay was Sean Westlake, Head of Skills Training and Employment at Robert Owen Communities. After March 2011, please contact sean.westlake@roc-uk.org
| Ben's Story | Chris' Story (updated) |
Ben
is 17 years old and has a real passion
and talent for graffiti art. He is currently
working towards an art award at Mayfield
school. Recently, he worked on a graffiti
project in school with a professional
graffiti artist, creating a masterpiece
on the outside of the school for everyone
to see.
Ben designed the graffiti and created stencils as part of the preparation for the piece.
By
working with a professional graffiti artist
on this project, and demonstrating his
abilities, Ben will now doing work experience
with the Graffiti Workshop Company, going
into local primary schools, passing his
skills on to others, and helping them
to create their own graffiti artworks.
Ben has realised that he wants to explore graffiti art as a career, and this work experience will introduce him to possible employment opportunities. Ben’s confidence has shot up because of what he’s achieved and the opportunities that he has created for the future.
Everyone at Mayfields School is very proud of what he has achieved and they say: “the Graffiti looks fantastic!”
Chris
is a learning-disabled young man aged
18 who is in his last year in the sixth
form at a mainstream secondary school
community college. He is preparing
to leave school next year and wants to
get a job.
Before getting involved in the Getting
a Life programme in 2009, Chris and his
family were involved in the Family Led
Jobs project in Torbay. As part
of this project, Chris and his family
worked with his school, King Edward VI
Community College, and a local supported
employment provider, Pluss, and others
to develop a Discovery Profile.
The profile helped everyone think about
what Chris could do and the things that
were important to him. Using the
profile, they created a plan for Chris
to move from school into work.
Over the summer of 2008, Chris began to work with Pluss Supported Employment and Training services. Usually, supported employment agencies work with older people who have already left school or college, but they changed the way they worked so that they could help Chris. Instead of going back to college full time in September 2008, he went to college for four days every week and used the other day to do work experience. Using Chris’ funding for one-to-one support, the college arranged for Graham, his Learning Support Assistant from college, to go with him.
After
working at Care Trust in an office environment,
Chris moved on to experience working in
retail, through a work experience placement
at the Co-op. Whilst working at
the Co-op, he gradually built up his hours
from a half day to a full day. Chris
really enjoys working at the shop and
looks forward to wearing smart clothes
to go there, which he doesn’t have to
do at college. Graham is on hand
to help Chris communicate with the rest
of the team, but most of the time Chris
now works independently around the store.
Chris’s manager, Dee, says, “Chris is
part of the team – he’s very enthusiastic
and always hard working”.
September 2009 was the start of Chris’
last year of college. When college
started again in September this year,
Chris only went back for three days a
week. In the other days, he will
be developing his professional skills
and getting experiences in different work
settings. His support team at home,
college, and PLUSS are helping him.
Now Chris is 18, he is getting an individual
budget. His mum is now thinking about
the best way to use it to support him.
This might include spending it on personal
job coaching to support him into paid
work once he leaves school in June 2010.
Chris is now 19 and finished his secondary education at King Edward VI Community College in July 2010, a mainstream secondary school in Totnes, Devon.
In August, Chris started part time paid work at the Rainbow 
International Hotel in Torquay as a Catering Assistant, following a work experience placement there. So far, Chris has worked in the restaurant and in the kitchen, and he is looking to try out other roles in the hotel as well.
Chris’ employment support team, which consists of his family, family friends, his previous school Teaching Assistants and PLUSS job coaches and employment consultancy staff, are continuing to work together to support Chris into full time paid work as soon as possible.
Chris’s job coaching and support is currently funded by PLUSS and by Chris’s direct payments. The team are investigating other sources of funding for job coaching, including Access to Work and Work Choice, to support Chris in increasing the number of hours he works.
In addition to his paid role, Chris started a part time work experience placement at Waitrose in Torquay, building on the retail skills he developed on work experience at the Co-op. Chris and his employment support team hope that this will also result in paid work.
