Of Our Success 

My name is Sarah, and I was going through some extremely difficult times due to bad choices I had made in my life and wanted so badly to change my world back to some form of normality and make amends for the bad choices I had made.

I was not employed and had very low self esteem and just did not know which way to turn.  I was given support workers to assist me and although it was helpful, I was in desperate need of someone to help me get out of this big hole I had slipped in to.  I was finding myself struggling to get out of bed as I had no vision of how I could turn things around in my life and I did want to do it so I could make myself proud of being able to cope.  I do suffer with ADHD and various other illnesses and these I did not want to hold me back either.

I took it on myself to attend the Chippenham Community Hub one day which took all the strength in the world to do.  I was so anxious to go in and talk to someone about my life, my situation, my aspirations, and the support I was needing to move on to a better path and get my life back on some sort of track.  It was an eye opener as I was so surprised at how easy it was to talk to “at the time” a stranger about all the things that had happened in my life and how I was going to move forward with a way of making good choices.

After many long conversations, emails of the kindest nature and phone calls to chase me up, I was encouraged to attend the Chippenham Community Hub on a regular basis and as the support was given it gave me the opportunity to gain confidence in becoming a volunteer and giving something back to others helped me to understand myself and feel good about what I was doing.  During my time of Volunteering, I was also encouraged to seek employment and given lots of support in different ideas of sectors I could possibly work within.  I also attended a Maths and English Course at the Chippenham Community Hub which Wiltshire College was running there at the time.

Due to being a very hands-on person and the love of being free and working with my hands it was suggested that I should consider working in construction as I am not, a “Girly Girl” and I like working with my hands and doing creative work that I can see and love the feeling of achievement.  This helps with having ADHD and the energy levels can be put to good use.  There was an arranged course put on at the Chippenham Community Hub arranged with New College, Swindon for a CSCS Construction Certificate.  The Chippenham Hub Manager advised that I benefit from this registration and construction would be a way forward for me and I decided to go ahead with this.  I not only smashed it, but I also came tops in the class.  I have gone from strength to strength and have been working with a local company covering many miles working of different projects on site and love my life.  The willingness was always there but I needed the support and certainly got this from Chippenham Community Hub.

I loved being at the Chippenham Community Hub as I was allowed to be always myself and the understanding of my ways and personality but the encouragement to be pushed out of my comfort zone without me even realising, I had done the things I feared and it was amazing.  The encouragement to go on the Walkie Talkie helped me so much to get to know others too.

I will always hold them close to my heart for the help and support given to me with my journey and I always pop in and speak with them when I get the chance.  The experience was precious and not having family living close it was really what I needed to get me on my way to building a better future for me and my family.