Introducing our Steps To Resilience Stars

 

Marc was an emergency appointment after a failed attempt to take his own life.

He attended the Steps To Resilience course (16-24) which started in September 2019 and he was the youngest member of the group, still attending Denny High School.

Marc was very quiet and nervous at the beginning but as the course progressed, he became more outgoing and an integral member of the group. He is a very supportive young man and intuitive of others feelings.

The group took part in a Judo session halfway through the course and Marc continues to attend the class because he enjoyed it so much. Marc says the course helped him to make a new healthier part of his life and has given him the drive to keep going as well hope for the future.

He made some lifelong friends on the course and says he didn’t want it to end because he misses it!

Becky was very nervous and suffered from anxiety.

At the beginning she couldn’t get public transport anywhere and was housebound for almost a year.

She began the Steps To Resilience course in 2016, gradually building her confidence and self-esteem until she started getting public transport again and took up a volunteering role.

Becky then applied to be a support worker with LinkLiving and she was offered a full-time job.

Claudia was quiet and rarely spoke when she started the course because she had very low self-confidence.

She attended the Steps To Resilience Schools (age 14-15) course which started in October 2019.

Claudia would distract herself by playing games on her phone and always tried to avoid getting involved and joining in discussions.

She completely came out of her shell. She started to speak, laugh and joke with other people and stopped using her phone as much. 

Claudia even took control to pick a film for movie night which was a big achievement for her and showed how much her confidence had grown. 

Emma had a difficult home life and initially she was forced to attend the course by her school, she didn’t want to go because she thought it would be pointless and boring.

She attended the first Steps To Resilience Schools course in January 2019.

After a few sessions Emma began taking part in everything that was thrown at her and her bubbly personality began to show. She says it was the only place that she could go and ‘be herself’ and she attended every single day.

Emma often wanted to talk to workers in breakout space about difficulties she’d been experiencing at home, she enjoyed attending the course so much that she even turned up during the school holidays.

Jamie is a father of two young children. He had a very challenging upbringing, going in and out of residential care and even becoming homeless for a while.

His family say he’d either be dead or in jail without the Steps To Resilience course.

Jamie started on the Steps To Resilience programme in 2018 because he wanted to work on his anger issues. He was also keen to help and support others who had been through similar life experiences and wanted to get work experience in this area. LinkLiving helped him to achieve that.

Jamie’s ambition is to get a job that would allow him to make a real difference to people’s lives, helping them to make positive changes.

Robyn was anxious and had very low self-esteem, but she was hiding her mental health issues and pretending they didn’t exist.

She started on the first Steps To Resilience three years ago after doing the Step Up course in 2015.

Robyn says the course caters to people’s needs and it helped her to be kinder to herself which was exactly what she needed at the time.

She completed further volunteering roles after the course, which involved mentoring other young people and volunteering at LinkLiving’s social café.

Robyn now works as a support worker for LinkLiving! 

Sarah was referred to Steps To Resilience by her school to build her confidence, tackle her anxiety and help her with schoolwork.

She made close friends with other participants who she is still in contact with.

By the end of the course Sarah was much more confident, showing leadership skills and a desire to help others succeed. Sarah’s also doing really well at school now and is setting herself goals for the future, such as going to college.

Sarah enjoyed the course so much that she’d like to go back and work for LinkLiving.