I started working at Youthy in 2014 when Ellie introduced the “Sports for all” initiative. I used to be a professional football (or soccer) player until injury stopped me. I’ve always had a keen interest in helping people and Youthy was a perfect fit.
Since then it’s all been about growing the team and getting young people involved in a real way.
I have many coaching and sports related qualifications and I am currently studying for my Youth Work Qualification. I’m really enjoying it and find it amazing that next year I will have a picture of myself graduating from University. I have never seen myself as being academic and I have used my own experience on this course to inspire and show the young people they can achieve things they or others never thought they would.
I am the Lead Worker for all the sporty and active projects and sessions we have running at Youthy. I love seeing the instant sense of achievement young people get from scoring a goal or helping their team to win. I also love seeing relationships build as young people work together and support each other through through a difficult trek or a tiring camping weekend.
I support many of the other projects running at Youthy and have become very interested in the Careers Guidance work with young people and enjoy seeing the joy on the face of a young person who has been regularly visiting our Job Shop when they come in to say they were successful at getting a job, especially a job they really wanted or thought was out of their reach.
