Towards Work case study: Inspire & Achieve

Anton was struggling with his self-esteem and confidence and was referred to the Towards Work Inspire and Achieve partner to take part in a course to build his self-confidence, able him to develop employability skills and be able to make new friends.   New issues occurred which resulted in Anton self harming. It appeared that Anton had been struggled with his sexuality from his early teens, but was unable to express his thoughts and feelings openly.  Until starting the Towards Work programme he had not received any support or advice from LGBTQ organisations.  Anton was given support to contact  LGBTQ organisations support groups, to help feel more at ease with his feelings.

He struggled with friendship groups because he felt that he couldn’t be himself. He wasn’t able to discuss the feelings he had carried around for many years and this was preventing him from moving on.  Some days doing the normal everyday things felt impossible, he would stay in his room and often just sleep the whole day.

He completed the TEAM programme with the Prince’s Trust to build confidence and self-esteem.  He also completed a 3 week Relate course with Inspire and Achieve to improve communication with family members and others in general.

He had a passion in writing and was encouraged to sign up to a creative writing course to provide a creative outlet to support with stress management and was advised that he used writing as an outlet especially for writing a journal of positive things which occur through the day, in order to stop focusing on the negatives of the day.

Anton learnt why he felt the way he did, and the impact of those feelings. He also realised that the negative feelings in his head were making the anxiety worse and feeding the feelings of depression.  He has learnt skills which help him through darkest of days. He has also been able to talk to others and now has a good support network, which he lacked prior to start of the programme.

The biggest factor for success was that he was finally able to discuss how he felt, and able to process and channel those thoughts positively. He was able to build a circle of friends he could use as a support network.

Support through the Towards Work programme has enabled him to get out of bed each day, and to start to job search and live a ‘normal’ life.

Anton no longer uses self-harming as an outlet, he is able to stop himself having those dark moments before they occur. He still uses the skills taught from sessions, which has encouraged him to stay in a more positive mind set. Exercise is also still high on the agenda especially throughout lockdown, having daily walks prevented him from reverting back to the familiar self-destruction techniques

“The support I was given helped me so much. It definitely changed my life for the better. The programme itself was amazing, and everything I’ve done as a result has helped me become a different person than I was before and I am so thankful for that.”