In 2019, we shared the journey of a gentleman called Jack. When we first met Jack, he struggled with crippling anxiety, was incredibly shy and found it difficult to make eye contact with others. For years, Jack refused to support and no longer took care of himself.
As a result of the support he has received from Darren, a Support Worker at MacIntyre and our team in Hampshire; Jack's life has completely changed.
Jack has achieved far more than he ever thought possible; travelling on a train alone, taking pride in his appearance, learning how to save money and enjoying socialising for the first time in his life.
Recently, our team in Hampshire invited Jack to attend a Careers Fair at Southampton University, to talk all about MacIntyre.
Jack decided to document his experience of the day...
Jack’s day at Southampton University Careers Fair
Darren asked me if I wanted to come along with him to the recruitment fair on Tuesday 10 March, at Southampton University, to help out. I did help him and I thought I would tell you about it.
We went to the university and parked up. We were told that we had to get a taxi to the place where the fair was. But Darren asked if we could park by the fair because of my anxiety and we found a space to park.
Lots of people came to our stand that was good and Sandy, one of the managers from the office came and helped. That was the first time I had met her as she is new.
Darren was so good, he chatted to loads of people and told them about MacIntyre and lots of them were interested too.
Darren was on the go from 10:30 when it started, to 14:30 when it finished and so was Sandy and Steph. They did a great job and Darren told everyone what he does and that he supports me and tells them what we do.
When I was there I did go around to look at other stands to see what else there, there were lots of good stands there.
I would like to say I controlled my anxiety when I was there. I didn’t have any problems whilst I was there, but I was nervous on my way there and upset, but apart from that, I was fine after Darren helped me.
It was a new place to go to and I can’t believe I was fine and had a really good day there with Darren and Sandy. I was pleased that I got asked and was alright.
I hope to get asked again to do some more. It was a great experience for me to go and really enjoyed it so much and would like to help again. I enjoyed it a lot.
Inspired?
If you think you could inspire people with learning disabilities and/or autism, receiving benefits including a higher than statutory holiday allowance, competitive pension, great retail discounts, a free employee assistance service and much more, we would love to hear from you.
