News | Posted 12 October 2023
Celebrating Two Years of Jobs First – Support Worker Joanna reflects on the programme
Today marks two years since the launch of Social Bite’s innovative Jobs First programme. In Jobs First, we work with some of the UK’s largest employers to match candidates from a homeless background to appropriate vacancies. A Social Bite support worker continues to work with both employer and employee to provide wrap-around support over a 15-month period; empowering the Jobs First employee to transform their own life.
In last two years, we’re proud to have supported 48 Jobs First employees through the programme, all across the UK. As well this, we recently launched a complementary 4-week Skills Lab course in which we can support even more candidates who have experienced homelessness to gain the confidence and practical skills needed to successfully apply for a job.
We caught up with Jobs First Development and Support Worker, Joanna, to hear more about the impact that this programme has had in it’s first two years, and how initiatives like this break the cycle of homelessness by making a real difference in individual’s lives.
Connection and community in Jobs First
“I believe that connection and community is something that every person looks for. I think that everyone can agree that if we can get better at creating this within our society, the world would be a better place. It might be that a lot of us take for granted the community that we have around us, whether that is family, friends, colleagues, or neighbours. These relationships give us love and support. For people that have experienced homelessness, a loss or absence of these relationships can be a cause and/or a symptom of that experience. A lack of support system and community can impact every aspect of someone’s life including their ability to maintain work.
My favourite part of my job as Jobs First Development and Support Worker is the relationships I get to build with the people that I support. It is an honour to be allowed into someone’s life, learn more about them and their experiences, and empower them to make positive changes. The trust that person puts in us is huge and it can take a long time to build the relationship. What makes Jobs First special is the time we are able to put in to make that happen. As the relationships with the support worker and the employer grows, we want the person to be able to carry that past the programme and build their community outside of it.”
The triangle of trust and love
“Jobs First is built on the triangle of trust, love and support between the employee, the employer, and the support worker. I see the relationship the employee builds up over the fifteen months as a net that can hold them when things are tougher. It’s also there to celebrate the wins with the person, and reaffirm their faith that there are people out there that care about them. In being there for someone over a sustained period of fifteen months, we are helping them see that community and trust in others is possible.”
Positive relationships, positive impact
“The relationships I have built working on Jobs First have had a profoundly positive impact on my life as well. Every day, I get to witness the unwavering good in people, and the passion they have for making change in themselves and their communities. As we celebrate two years of Jobs First, we celebrate the network of relationships that have been created through the programme and the impact those have on all of us involved. And we hope that these relationships can help us on our mission to end homelessness.”