I grew up in a diverse low-income community and throughout my childhood and adolescent years, I experienced many difficulties and personal challenges growing up and these difficulties led to a turbulent secondary education.
I was not encouraged to complete school or pursue my goals. This resulted in me leaving school with a few qualifications.
I have always had an interest in social care due to my own childhood experiences. However, due to my secondary education being difficult I did not feel brave enough to undertake higher education until I had matured and had children of my own.
I feel that the difficulties I faced within my childhood have given me the ability to relate to people from a diverse range of backgrounds and an understanding of the needs of different client groups.
I am a resilient individual and feel that I have transferred this into my practice and aided my ability to cope with difficult situations and challenging clients.
I lived in a community as a single mum shortly after my first child was born so have experienced being a single mum on a low income. I have also experienced the ups and downs this can bring and in addition to becoming a mother, my youngest child was born with additional learning and health needs which led to an extra commitment.
Due to these experiences and developing and maturing myself, I wanted to be a positive role model for my children and develop and explore if I was able to return to my studies and develop my skills and become a Social Worker.
My passion to help people and being told I am someone who friends and family turn to in times of crisis and upset. Drove me forward in wishing to achieve my goals.
I undertook voluntary work within primary education, became a parent governor and support services to gain further confidence in working with children and their families.
I undertook the Access and Assessment Course in health and social care at Hull College and gained the skills and attainments to attend University. I started University of Lincoln in 2010 to undertake the social work degree (BSc).
I thrived in my learning and upon completion of my degree I gained employment in 2013 as a sessional Residential Support Worker. for Hull City Council and during this time also worked for Hull Churches Housing as a Children and Family Support Worker.
I applied and was successful in gaining employment as a full-time social worker in April 2014 and have worked for Hull City Council as a Social Worker since this date.
This has been immensely rewarding for me and a journey that was difficult initially but with encouragement from my family I felt a real sense of achievement that despite some challenges I fulfilled my dream of becoming a Child and Family’s Social Worker with Hull City Council.