Jenny’s journey began in a children’s residential home as sadly, Jenny lost her mam to an alcohol-related death. Jenny’s 18th birthday was coming up and therefore it was time to move on from the children’s home.
Jenny met Lucie (her support worker) from Moving On as it was agreed for Jenny to move on into one of our properties. Jenny, however, was still really upset at the thought of having to leave, as she saw staff as family due to her being there so long. During this time, Jenny began using substances including cannabis and cocaine as a coping mechanism to deal with her situation.
To help with the move from the children’s home to Moving On, Jenny came to us as part of a transitional move. This meant at first, she stayed some nights at the children’s residential home and some nights at her Moving On home. Jenny felt this helped to get settled into her new home.
Jenny spoke to Lucie about how she had no idea on how to manage a house or pay bills. The move was quite a big shock to Jenny and sometimes caused emotional distress. Lucie and Jenny spent a lot of time producing a very detailed support plan with small achievable goals such as remembering to make sure doors and windows were locked when leaving the house, how to top up her gas and electric and top tips for cleaning. Jenny bought a calendar to mark off when utilities were due to help her financially plan. Jenny soon got into the swing of things and managed to pay bills on time and started to carry out her own food shops.
Jenny and Lucie started to look at types of meals Jenny could cook for one person but also how to be cost effective, so they took a trip to the supermarket to buy tupperware so Jenny could then batch cook. Jenny took a real interest in cooking and would start to show Lucie what she had cooked on her visits. From this passion, together they looked into various avenues for what Jenny might to do from college course, such as catering and apprenticeship opportunities. Lucie and Jenny found an apprenticeship which would be perfect. Jenny applied and was successful. She started working in a local bistro.
Jenny really enjoyed her job and after her apprenticeship, was promoted to head chef as a result of her hard work.
We are so proud of how far Jenny has come. Her confidence has grown, she knows how to manage her own home (at such a young age may we add) and found a job she loves. Jenny is proud of herself and her progress – and we are too, looking at how far she has come.