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“This job fits my passions and interests perfectly”

Welcome to Staff Spotlight, a series of stories from staff who have recently changed roles or been promoted at St Christopher’s. This time we are hearing from Matt, who is part of our sibling youth mentoring team.

“After spending a couple of years working in residential children’s homes, I saw this job and it felt like a good step up. I was familiar with St Christopher’s Runaways project – this new role looked similar to that but with a few other aspects that excited me. I was ready for a change of scenery and new challenge.

This role involves working with young people but is less structured compared to residential homes. We work in different places so I travel around more. As it’s a new project we have spent the first few months introducing ourselves to a lot of different services and building our caseload. This has been a challenge as I miss the structure of working in a home, though I am learning new skills in how to manage my time. As a few people have told me – I have to enjoy the quietness as when it becomes full-on I’ll look back at this time with envy! 

What has helped me settle in is my team. Though we are a small group it’s been nice meeting up for weekly meetings and bouncing ideas off each other. Even during this current time, switching to video calls has been helpful checking in with each other and having a laugh too. We have Johann from Runaways in with us as well who usually works alone so I’d like to think he enjoys having us about – or if not he’s good at pretending to!

I’m really excited about getting into this role when we can meet up with young people on a regular basis. It’s such a good opportunity to be able to be a positive change in their lives as there’s a lot of freedom and flexibility in the way we do our sessions.

I’m so pleased that I stayed working with St Christopher’s as otherwise I would never have found this job. It fits my passions and interests perfectly but I needed that experience of working in the homes to help me grow. St Christopher’s is so focused on career development so I’d encourage you to stick with us if you’re unsure as they will do their best to find the right thing for you. Staying in the same organisation gives you a much better opportunity to move up as you will build up some important working relationships which will only benefit you the longer you work here.”

Are you interested a career where you can make a genuine difference to young people’s lives? Find out about careers at St Christopher’s today.