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Thank you,

Kendall

I was asked to be the project leader in Glasgow for youth self-employment. Being self-employed and young it fits perfectly!

My project is mostly about setting up a website that provides all young people with information and advice they need to start up a business. It will have links to useful website, programmes that are on, where to get more support, forums, monthly special guests (giving young business start ups to share their business stories) and much more. I will also be working on an App and creating a Twitter account for it too which will have fortnightly live chats.

The reason I came up with this idea is because setting up a business can be lonely, confusing and sometimes seem impossible. Now I’m working on getting a group of young business start-ups (at different stages of their journey) together and getting them involved to help with the content for the site.

If you would be interested in getting involved please let me know!

xx

TuesdayI had a meeting about an exciting European wide project thats going on called My Generation at Work – I have been asked to be to social media wiz kid for it!

Wednesday I started going out to one of the Job Centre’s in Glasgow, which is great. We are trying to get out to all of the big ones!

We had a Glasgow team meeting on Thursday, there are now 5 of us covering Glasgow so we needed to work out who was doing where – which is now all sorted. I then arranged that we all meet fortnightlyso we can chat about how we are getting on, what new organisations we are linked in with etc. I also spoke to a group of young mums at One Parent Families Scotland which went really well.

MP Sheila Gilmore was going to the Edinburgh Centre on Friday so 3 of us from Glasgow drove through to be there and chat with her about what The Prince’s Trust does. When I got back to the office I phoned some young people to arrange one to ones and had a few others coming in.

Another great week!

On Tuesday I went to the Get into Cooking taster day, 25 young people turned up. It was a really good day, at the end we narrowed it down to 15 young people to go on to the course.

Wednesday I took annual leave as I was exhausted, when Kiera’s ill I barely sleep. I did go in at lunch on the Wednesday and that was to meet and great the new Job Ambassadors! So there are now 12 of us and soon to be 14.

Friday I was through in Ayr at Working Links speaking to a group of young people about a few of the courses we have coming up and in the afternoon I had a few young people to meet with in the office.

I then had a few more young people in, some for the Get into Cooking interviews others just to see what they want to do and whats there for them. Then had a big meeting with a few other organisations to discuss working together better and what exactly my job is.

Tuesday and Wednesday Kiera was really unwel so we stayed home and I did a few emails etc. from home.

On Wednesday & Thursday I was meant to be doing Mental Health First Aid training but unfortunatly because I was off with Kiera I missed it, so going to look to see when more dates for it are.

So Thursday I spent the day catching up and phoning a few young people.

And on Friday Hayley (my boss) and I went to the Prince’s Trust Centre in Glasgow to meet with the Fairbridge team and arrange for us Job Ambassadors to go out and work out our areas and contacts better.

This week I am feeling a little less stressed, I have just sold Kiera’s Quinny Zapp on eBay for £80 and have a bunch of shoes on eBay ending this week too so that will help with a few things.

I am still really annoyed about this situation, I thought they were meant to be making it better off for you to go to work instead of making it worse.

xx

For a few of the people who where intersestd in Retail but where ‘too old‘ I managed to find another course that GRA do so i got them interviews for the Monday and took them along.

The Prince’s Trust has had quite a few new staff in over the last few months and I was asked to have a chat with them to let them know all about Job Ambassadors, how  we came about and what we do so on Tuesday afternoon I sat down with about 10 new staff and told them everything they needed to know.

Wednesday morning myself and Peter managed to get into a Job Centre staff meeting in the JCP that Peter has been going out too, it was really interesting and we also then filled the staff in on what days Peter would be there and why we are there!

The rest of the week I was filled with interviews for the Cooking & Retail course. I found these quite fun to do, they are really informal interviews just to find out if they are ready for the course and if its definitely what they want to do.

Total kick in the face.

This now means once I have payed;
£475 rent
£200 nursery (Child Tax covers £400)
£200 food
£100 gas & elecric 
£60 travel to work
£35 phone bill

I am left with £100 spare to spend on things like new clothes for Kiera or me, new shoes etc.

Since finding this out last Wednesday I have been really stressed to the point where I just want to cry and feel useless. I feel like I keep trying and trying to better everything and believe me , if I could afford it, I wouldn’t be on benefits at all but realisticly I need some help with this.

Housing Benefit have just recenlty put in place new rules to how much and who can get help toward there rent and basically because I am a private tennant and a working single mother I am getting screwed over. It would actually work out better for me to go back on to income support where I would have £300 spare a month! Of course I am not going to do this.

It now means I am now going to really struggle though.

I really thought that I wouldn’t be this stressed about money once I was working and I was really looking forward to my wages after Christmas because I could’ve then started buying myself things (which I never do) and I wanted to start doing things to the house, which I now can’t.

Right now I feel like absolute crap, I want to provide so much for my daughter and I feel like I can’t and everytime I try and work so hard at something I get kicked in the face.

So, sorry in advance for any angry/sad tweets

A few things I would like to put right…
No, I am not glamerising teen pregrnancy
I fell pregnant at 18 (had Kiera by 19) not at 16 – which it sounds like
My daughter is 100% healthy and happy

The advert is only 60 seconds long so of course it can’t fit everything in and remember its a flipping advert where thy have actually edited my voice slightly so that everything I told that woman that day fitted together into one small paragraph.

Onwards & upwards.

xxx

Tuesday Morning I was then at the Young Ambassadors taster day where I spoke to them about Job Ambassadors and my job.
I was then at a Connect2 meeting discussing working together and how we can help one another out and what there courses entail. Later on I was then working on finding other Cooking & Retail options for young people who where ‘too old’ for the Skills Academy ones so I phoned Tennents training and GRA and managed to pull some things together I then phoned all the young people and and arranged for them to come in.

On Wednesday we had our Job Ambassadors team meeting – I love these because we all get to catch up on what we are doing and give each other advice and tips. We are such an awesome team. We went over learning styles as well I came out as a Be Perfect, Please People and Hurry up – which didn’t suprise me at all because I like to complete things perfectly but also make sure everyone else is happy with it.

I had a meeting with one of the Job Centres on Thursday to talk about me going out there once a week. I also managed to get 10 spaces for interviews for the GRA Retail course they do so I phoned 10 of the 22 young people wanting to do Retail and asked them to come the the interview on Monday.

On Friday Amanda and me got asked to go into a very last minute meeting with Richard Cornish, JCP Director, to talk about what we are wanting to do in the Job Centres and how it could be made better. Straight after that we had to litterally run for the bus to go to the Prince’s Trust centre for a programme information day which had some young people there who are on/completed the Fairbridge programme and also people from the Job Centre, SDS and other organisations.
I was then picked up and taken to the EEI meeting – where they recognised me from the STV advert!