My colleague Jordan Nicholl and I (Nicole Sim) started a HSCP traineeship on the 28th of September and we will be in post for a year. I just wanted to take this time introduce us and tell you a little bit about what we have done so far. Our job is to empower other care experienced young people to use their voice. Also share our experiences to give young people confidence to share theirs. Within that we are also going to be a link between the core group and mini champs working to effectively share their views when they are not able to.
So far we have had opportunities to have placements within Youth Services and Inclusive Support and are supporting the Summer Holiday Camp in Barrhead High. We are also involved with The Healthier Minds team and have attended Business Support team meetings.
The Champions Board has also been a big focus point for us in our role and have done a lot of work to help it get back up and running after the impacts of Covid. We are currently organising the first face to face Young person’s meeting in a while. Due to the circumstances of Covid we haven’t been able to do face to face meetings, therefor our first meeting will be used to rebuild relationships and focus on future themes of the champion’s board.
The champion’s board catch ups are a safe space to share thoughts and ideas, a place to make friends and a platform to influence change. We work together to achieve changes to better the lives of care experienced young people within East Renfrewshire.
To start off my name is Connor Boyd, I am 17 years old and I am a HSCP Trainee. I started my traineeship on the 25th of October 2021 and 3 days into the course I am enjoying it. It’s not uptight, it doesn’t cause me any stress and it offers a lot of help for qualifications and work experience.
Personally I have no clue what I want to do after my traineeship has ended. I could go to college or go back and train for bricklaying or something completely different, I have zero idea. But I think the traineeship will help me figure out what I actually want to do and set my mind on accomplishing in the future and that’s something I look forward to.
As well as having a good start with the traineeship I am already familiar with most of the people I am working and socialising with. Which makes it a whole lot easier for me as I struggle with social anxiety, so working in a familiar building with familiar people is very unnerving and stress relieving for me as I can get pent up sometimes if something is too hard or I can’t figure out what to do so having people by my side I am already familiar with is extremely reassuring.
Hi my name is Hayley, I am a trainee at HSCP and I am really excited about meeting you all and looking forward to all the different experiences I am going to be involved in
