Amy came to GRoW in October 2019 following an emergency move to Hillingdon forced her to leave her job suddenly. After working a variety of jobs that have been affected by the pandemic she has now been offered a job as part of the NHS Mass-Vaccinator Programme.
Amy said “Due to an emergency situation Southwark Council moved me to Hillingdon and I had to move quickly leaving my job and all my support networks behind. I didn’t know anybody in Hillingdon and was also new to claiming Universal Credit. The Job Centre referred me to the GRoW Programme and I started to get help from Liz and Tosin. At the time I was feeling so low but Liz made me feel so much better and brought me back from where I was. GRoW helped me with my cv and my confidence and I was really keen to get back to work immediately.
I found a full-time job at a Nursery in West Drayton before the first lockdown in March and it was working out fine. As I was a key worker my children could remain in school but when the Nursery reopened to all students the After School Club did not reopen and I had nobody to look after my children. I had to leave the job but straight away I found a cleaning job that I could do between 10.00am and 2.00pm each day that fitted better around my children’s school hours. Unfortunately when my son and I came down with Covid I wasn’t entitled to statutory sick pay and it was affecting my benefit claims so I had no choice but to leave that job too and look for an alternative.
The GRoW Team have stayed in touch with me throughout this time, checking in to make sure I am OK. They continued to keep me updated about new jobs in my area and when I found out about the NHS vaccination jobs that were available I was really keen to find out more. GRoW helped me with the application process and once I completed the online training I was offered the position as a Vaccinator.
I am really excited about the Vaccinator job and the opportunities it could present to get into a different type of role. Ideally I had been looking to get a job in Admin but working for the NHS might open up a new route that I hadn’t considered before. I really feel motivated to strive for more, keep doing better and not look back!