Welcome to East Herts YMCA
Story Two
Staff
I began working as a housing support worker at the YMCA in January 2006. For the past three years I have mainly worked with people who have disabilities, but I decided that I needed a new challenge. My career in social care began as a care assistant working in the community with the elderly. I did this for a year, part-time, around my college course - and then took up a full-time post as a project worker in a housing association's residential care home for adults with severe learning disabilities. I remained with the housing association right up until I joined the YMCA, and in that time progressed from a project worker to a housing support worker, eventually becoming a team leader!
However, alongside my full-time post I was working voluntarily in the special educational needs department of a local secondary school. I discovered that I enjoyed working with young people, and began to look for employment in a youth service.
I applied for the post at the YMCA because the role of the housing support worker seemed to combine the skills I had gained from support working, plus my aspirations to work with young people. I was unsure what to expect - the YMCA is larger than any service I had worked in to date, and it was a completely new client group too. I was quite nervous on my first day here, but soon found the tenants and staff to be most welcoming and friendly.
I feel positive about the work I do and I'm looking forward to the training courses that I'm going to take which will help to develop my skills. I have not yet worked out for myself exactly what direction my career is heading in, but I do feel that the YMCA is an organisation in which there is plenty of scope for my personal and professional development.