Next steps.....

The past 18 months with All Star, as a Healthy Minds apprentice and a Project Worker has been really good.

As an apprentice I was able to further develop my skills and also experience new things, such as being in videos, whether that was to be put online or for resources for projects, getting involved in meetings with service providers and also getting involved in a lot of co-production, where, as a team, we were able to voice our opinions and ideas with a variety of services on anything they brought to us.

I was able to achieve a lot of things during my time as an apprentice. One was being able to plan my own video on grievance and loss based on my own personal experience, in order to try and help other young people who may be going through the same thing. With this I asked some members of the team questions about how they coped with their loss and also the different types of losses too. This was something I was really proud of, as I was able to lead and also be a part of something that isn’t spoken about enough in regards to young people experiencing this.

As an apprentice team we were able to create a calm space exhibition in Cartwright Hall, a place where anyone can go to relax and just take a breather. The whole process of this was really fun, being able to choose a theme of the space. The whole purpose of this was to make it as relaxing as possible, with the music playing in the background, with the furniture used and also the paintings around that area too. It’s a real privilege to have something where young people and other members of the public can go to feel calm whenever they may be feeling stressed or just need some time to themselves.

As a Project Worker I work on the B-Safe programme, within this programme I work with a lot of the data collecting and then with this data I use it to write up a case study about the school and the pupils overall to see if there has been any change in their behaviour in relation to the topics and questions asked. I find the data collection process interesting as it shows the attitude of the pupils we deliver this programme to and overall, data is something I have always had an interest in.

I have also had the opportunity to go to London in October for a youth networking event, with this I was able to meet a range of different people from a variety of organisations. As well as this we were able to go into Number 10 Downing Street for the networking event and also have a tour around Number 10 too. This was a really good experience and it was good to meet so many different people and also talk about what we do as an organisation and also our calm exhibition. This was something I never thought I would have the opportunity to do.

Currently, I have been offered a new role with Born in Bradford, to work as a peer research assistant. I have wanted to work with Born in Bradford since the start of my apprenticeship, and because of this I had the opportunity to do my placement with them and as a result of this I became a lot more interested in having the opportunity to work for them at some point in the future. This is something I am really excited to start, as it is something completely new to me and it is something I have wanted to do and have been working towards.