Pictured above: Chris Grantham with his partner Della and
two year old son Henry
A Derwent Living resident is enjoying a new home and a new
career in retail, thanks to help from YMCA Derbyshire and Derwent
Living.
Chris Grantham, 31, who lives in Mickleover with his partner
Della and their two year old son Henry, moved to Derby two years
ago after being made redundant.
Chris says: "I worked for a construction firm in Sheffield doing
ground work. When the recession hit, the company struggled and
unfortunately I was made redundant. It was a difficult time for me
and my family, as we then had our home repossessed.
"At this point we decided we needed a fresh start and moved to
Derby and applied for a property through Derwent Living. When we
moved in, we were given a lot of information about the area and
services that Derwent Living could provide. One of the leaflets we
received was about getting unemployed people back into work."
Derwent Living is always looking at ways to improve the quality
of its customers' lives. With this in mind, the Derby-based housing
provider has teamed up with YMCA Derbyshire to offer a unique
service to its customers.
Once a resident moves in to a Derwent Living property, if they
are unemployed and struggling to find work, they will be referred
to a case worker at YMCA Derbyshire, who will provide assessments
of their literacy and numeracy. The programme also helps to develop
people's confidence completing job application forms, preparing for
interviews and writing CV's.
After being referred by Derwent Living to YMCA Derbyshire, Chris
went on to complete courses in employment and personal development,
food safety and hazardous substances. He now works at his local
Tesco where he cleans the ovens in the bakery and drives
machinery.
Chris continues: "Everything happened quite quickly when I was
referred by Derwent Living to the YMCA. When I lost my job
and I couldn't find anything else in the construction industry, I
was lost and didn't really know where to turn. Once I moved to
Derby that all changed and the support I got through both Derwent
Living and the YMCA really helped me to get back on my feet. I have
much more confidence now and have already progressed through the
ranks at Tesco and feel like I could have a career here."
Claire Taylor, Skills for Jobs coordinator at YMCA Derbyshire
says: "Once someone has been referred to us by Derwent Living, we
would arrange to meet with them and find out what their primary
goals and objectives were. This could be anything from help with
their CV or helping them to develop their interview techniques or
giving them advice on potential vocational qualifications or
training they could undertake.
"The scheme is working really well. We help people with work
related advice that a lot of people take for granted. It can be
really difficult to know where to start when you have worked in a
certain industry for a long time and suddenly you find yourself out
of work. When you haven't had to job hunt for a number of years,
sometimes it is just useful if someone can give you advice on how
to search or tips on how to fill in an application form. We want to
help people to build on their confidence and potentially help them
to learn new skills so that they can get back into work."
Christine Smith, community regeneration officer at Derwent
Living said: "We know that the recession has affected a lot of
people and we wanted to try and help our residents by giving them
some guidance on how they could get extra support. The support that
Chris has received through YMCA Derbyshire has really helped him to
build his confidence and train in a new sector."
For more information on Derwent Living, please visit their
website here: www.derwentliving.com