Colleague Spotlight: Helen

Our Colleague Spotlight feature is on Helen, who is a Senior Community Support Worker. Read Helen’s interview below to find out what she enjoys about her job, what she does in his spare time and much more.

What do you most love about your job?

There are lots of things I like about working in Vocational Projects. But, my favourite is when the people I support learn a new skill. Their sense of pride massively increases from their achievement.

What is something new you have been doing at Longmead?

We recently came up with the idea for a Knit and Natter session, inviting people from the community to come along, enjoy a tea, coffee and biscuit whilst doing some knitting. We have hosted one session so far and we had two people from Redhill join us. People from Vocational Projects and Community Choices at Longmead took part in creating the flyers and delivering them to the local residents.

What things are you working on at the moment?

We have been taking part in lots of co-production work. The group really enjoy being able to speak for themselves and on behalf of others. Some of these include:

• Healthwatch Surrey surveys to find out about the ways in which digital technology helps people with disabilities
• Understanding Autism Training, where they were asked to be on the training to give feedback on what was good and anything that could be changed.
• Positive Choices presentation creation for upcoming meetings. This is all about the move from Noke Drive to Longmead and what sessions are now available. They have also been learning new skills on the reception area at Longmead.

What has been a positive change since moving to Longmead last year?

The location of Longmead. I feel it is better and we have had various people asking about our services because we are so integrated with the local residents and our community. Also, having the polytunnel on the same site means colleagues can support each other better in both of the Vocational Projects and the people we support are working together a lot more.

What is a personal goal of yours?

To continue to support as many people as possible to reach their full potential.

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