Jeanette

"My BBO journey was set up by a member of the Community Housing Tenancy Sustainability Team.  It has been a great help, with job search support and being able to talk to someone on a regular basis.  I also had the opportunity to do a course on basic computer skills. 

The reason for my unemployment was because I was made redundant by Poundland after they decided to shut the store down.  I had worked for them for nearly 13 years and before that I had worked for Woolworths, who also made me redundant by their closure. 

Having someone who knew what was out there was a great help to both my mental health and day-to-day life.  I have been on the BBO project for 7 months and would recommend it to anyone who can join.

A big thank you to all involved with the project and long may it continue".

Jeanette started part-time employment at the end of August.

Jacob

Jacob has 14% sight due to a car accident in January 2019. He is now 27 years old.

He decided that he wants to work but wasn’t sure what he is able to do as he had to leave his career in retail management after his accident.

Vernice, Jacob’s Job Coach, identified that he is a natural counsellor and has a good sense of humour and would like to focus on this as a possible career choice.  She identified colleges which offer this course and then registered his interest to go onto a CPCAB Certificate in Level 2 Counselling Skills course at HOW College.  During this time, it was identified that Jacob would need to update his IT skills (taking into consideration his limited sight).  Vernice liaised with DIAL and Sight Concern Worcestershire for support, and also identified possible volunteering opportunities. Either way, via work or training, it was paramount that IT, software and hardware would need to be specified in order to help Jacob in his near and future personal development, training and employment.

Vernice contacted David Fuente, Community Housing TEC Co-ordinator to see if he would be able to suggest, test and loan any equipment which would help Jacob on a day-to-day basis, or any potential aids to use computers, etc. 

She also contacted Head of IT, Stuart Underhill regarding potentially providing Jacob with a laptop.  It was quickly agreed that we would be able to donate Jacob a laptop for him to use permanently. Stuart also identified other free software which could be downloaded to support Jacob with training. 

Jacob is now waiting to see if he has been accepted onto the Level 2 Counselling Skills course, where he will hopefully be able to use his own adapted laptop when completing his coursework.  He is also waiting for Sight Concern to contact him to see when he will become a trained volunteer, which in the long term could lead to paid work.

Jacob and his mom have found the support and help from BBO and Community Housing ‘overwhelming’ and cannot thank everyone enough, as they felt ‘doors were always closing when finding out information and accessing services’.

The success shows that different departments within Community Housing are supporting colleagues as well as customers.