D came to Crest earlier this year, and was given 100 hours of voluntary work as part of his court order; D is a clever and polite young man who by his own admittance had got mixed up in the wrong crowd. D started working on the Crest community task van, completing his Community Payback hours quickly; whilst completing his hours, he was supported on a 1:1 basis by our Social Inclusion Manager to continue volunteering with Crest post Community Payback, with a view to applying for a position with Crest on the Kick Start employment programme for young people.
This took a little time due to complications confirming D’s immigration status for the Kick Start programme (he had come to the UK age 6 from Portugal); D was assisted by our Social Inclusion Manager to complete all relevant immigration paperwork, attend interviews and Kick Start application documents before being successfully accepted on Kick Start at the end of March 2022.
Between completing his community payback hours and joining Crest as a Kick Start employee, D proved to be a model volunteer at Crest, assisting with furniture collections and deliveries; during this time, D attended Health and Safety and Manual handling courses and is now enrolled on Fire Safety and customer service skills training.
With our support, D has integrated well into the community and recognises that without our support and the volunteering opportunity presented to him, he may well have ended up re-offending, leaving him with no real prospects of paid employment, or opportunity to change his life around for the better.