Client Stories
Dominic
Copyright: Dreamstime.com
“My name is Dominic and I am 38 years old. For the past
ten to fifteen years I have been leading a very unsettled way
of life. I have been out of work and receiving sickness benefit
for over ten years due to health problems caused by alcohol and
substance misuse. I have also served several prison sentences
during this time. In 2003 I got three years for street robbery
and at this point I decided I had had enough. In 2005 I was released
from prison and went to live at Rookwood Bail Hostel in Rotherham.
I spoke to the outreach worker from SOVA (Graham) who attends
the residents’ meeting every week. My self-esteem and confidence
were very low at that point. I wasn’t sure what I wanted
to do, but I did know that I wanted to get back into full- time
employment. Graham reassured me and urged me to take things one
step at a time. I decided that I would like to improve my maths
and try and look for some voluntary work.
“After looking at my options, Graham took me to Swinton
Lock Adventure Centre to see what courses they had on offer.
I decided I would like to do something different and I settled
for a boat-handling
course. I had never been on a boat before and I was a bit nervous
about the whole thing but as soon as we got started I began to
feel much more relaxed. Everyone was really nice and the instructors
were great. The course was one day a week for six weeks, learning
how to handle a narrowboat and drive it. At the same time, I
began attending numeracy classes at SOVA.
“After the course finished I was asked if I would like
to get my skipper’s licence and I have just returned from
an overnight trip on the boat learning to skipper and be responsible
for the boat and crew. Since obtaining my skipper’s licence,
I have been offered some voluntary work at Swinton Lock Adventure
Centre. This work involves being responsible for the crew on
the Centre’s narrowboat and taking groups of people out
on day trips.
“I am over the moon about what I have achieved in the
past few months. My confidence and selfesteem have improved dramatically
because as well as gaining the boat qualifications, I have learned
new skills in team building and made new friends. This has enabled
me turn my back on a life of drugs
and crime. The next stage for me is to get off sickness benefit
and make a claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance. This will then
hopefully take me one step closer to my ultimate goal, which
is to secure full time employment.”
Supporting offenders under supervision in the community
is where SOVA started over 30 years ago, and many SOVA projects
continue to offer services to this client group.
The SOVA Hertfordshire Probation Partnership, after nine
years of delivering services to people on Probation orders and
other community sentences, continues to develop new areas of
expertise, this year adding to its repertoire support to domestic
violence survivors, and money advice. The project has also brought
additional funding to the partnership from sources such as Job
Centre Plus, the Learning and Skills Council and Community Safety
Partnerships. The project delivered over 7,000 volunteer hours
during the year, 30% over target and the highest ever recorded
in the project’s history.
The SOVA Essex Probation Partnership expanded to establish
the SOVA Essex Drug Action Team Partnership, a project for class
A drug users who are prolific offenders and/or use acquisitive
crime to
fund their habit. Although only in its first year, the project
has already received 78 referrals, and has recruited 55 volunteers.
Many SOVA community projects provide employment, training and
education advice to offenders under supervision, as with Dominic.
SOVA projects provide basic skills support – literacy and
numeracy to level 2 – as well as employment advice through
programmes such as Progress 2 Work and deploying volunteers to
support project participants.
Women into Work – Building Futures is piloting a range of
approaches working with employers to improve the gender balance
in occupational sectors under-represented by women, particularly
women with additional needs created by multiple disadvantage.
This has included, for example, the setting up of traineeships
in the construction industry. Research in this area resulted
in ‘I ain’t no tea lady’ which was published,
and launched at various dissemination events and conferences.
back |