Eryk is a young person currently living with St Basils in Solihull, after being forced to flee his home. Eryk is Polish and even though he grew up in this country, has no recourse to public funds. With the help of Phil Bradley and the support team in Solihull and Kash Munroe, our Partnerships and Progression officer, he has been assisted by St Basils with interview skills and a grant to cover basic expenses, plus a generous offer from Facilities Management recruitment company Boden Resource, means he has now secured a full time paid role on an ongoing basis.
Eryk said of this opportunity, which is his first job following completing a Law degree at Bristol University: “It’s really fun, all the people are really nice. I wasn’t sure what to expect of my first job, but this is great!”
“The job is an administrative position and doing research to update the database and make sure we’ve got the most up to date contacts for everyone. Boden Resource regularly send out job opportunities and promotional emails to their clients and if the database isn’t correct their clients won’t receive the email, so it is really important I make sure it’s up to date”.
“The opportunity at Boden has given me both analytical skills and attention to detail. I definitely feel my confidence has increased over the last few weeks. In the first week I wasn’t confident in speaking to anyone… but I’m much more myself now”.
“Work has made things so much better than how things were before, I have OCD which can get quite bad at times, but now it’s really calmed down as I’ve got something to do and I am able to structure my day. It’s not a focus for me anymore as I’m absorbed in other things.”
“The hardest thing was just getting into the routine. Getting up at 6am everyday and putting on a suit. It’s not what I’m used to. The hardest thing was changing my life basically!”
“Working here has been great – I’d recommend it to anyone. I’m really thankful to Phil Bradley my support worker for all the help he’s given me and for referring me to Kash, and I want to thank Kash as well for getting me this opportunity”.
“If I wasn’t here I’d be asleep, yes just sleeping through my days. It sounds chilled but actually this is much better.
“St Basils and this opportunity has definitely helped me get back on track, feel calmer and more focused and in control of my life”
“I feel like I’m getting a lot of good experience here and transferable skills and after this opportunity I would still like to do something with my Law degree so my next steps will be trying to get a graduate position somewhere in a law firm”.
“I’d definitely recommend this to other young people at St Basils. The staff are there to help you, you just need to ask them!”