Connect2Grow
Connect2Grow is a 13-week-long, integrated skills and employment service delivered in partnership with Tonic Health which is aimed at providing comprehensive support to residents across South Holland and Boston areas who suffer from health-related barriers.
Connect2Grow is fully funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and will help individuals:
- Identify local job vacancies,
- Match participants’ skills with relevant jobs and mentoring to help them sustain employment.
- Offer personalised health and wellbeing-focused coaching.
Tonic Health is a health and wellbeing charity, that provides community support to the people of South Holland, Boston, and surrounding areas.
They support people of all ages and backgrounds, especially those not considered ‘well enough’ to support themselves in society, but not ‘bad enough’ to receive statutory support from others.
Connect2Grow will help individuals identify local job vacancies, match participants’ skills with relevant job opportunities, provide in-work support and mentoring, as well as offer a range of support activities including:
- Personal Development Sessions,
- 1-2-1 Job Searching + Employer Engagement Support,
- CV Review,
- Initial Assessment,
- Upskilling of Employability Skills,
- And Professional Vocational-Based Qualifications.
If you wish to contact us for more information or to sign up to Connect2Grow, please email your full name and contact number to connect2grow@steadfasttraining.co.uk
Time’s up
Stories
“SP had been unemployed due to her health, as well as just having a tumour removed whilst suffering from Type 1 Diabetes. Not only this, but she also has a child, so she was only available during school hours and had to rely on public transport.
Sadly, SP was unable to return to her original career in care, due to her health conditions, so she needed support in looking for alternative roles. She identified a career in schools, that would manage her health issues and childcare, and soon after we discussed a Teaching Assistant course which SP completed in June 2023
We helped her complete her CV and started to send it to Teaching Agencies where she then got an interview for a SEND teacher with Protocol Education. After the interview, she was offered a position with them at a local school.
Support was given to SP around childcare, ready for her start date. The employers were made aware of her health and were still happy to offer her a position.
Unfortunately, due to family matters, SP had to move out of the area and so had to end her job.
She is still being supported to to help her return to employment based on her new barriers (childcare has changed). SP has already had 3 interviews and discussed her health and says she now has more strength and feels that she will be able to return to care.”
When J came onto the programme, her confidence was low, having been recently separated from her partner, and having been relocated to a new town with four young people, one of whom has complex health needs.
J, over time, was determined to find suitable employment to work around the care of her children, and was open to exploring a variation of roles, from cleaning to caring to remote working. J was initially offered a remote working role via Concentrix – customer service banking but unfortunately, within days of starting the role, Concentrix lost the contract. Not feeling deterred J was set to find a similar role and did do so with Santander directly. The process took its time, during which, J and two of the children were taken unwell with Strep A and the recruitment process was set back, due to errors within the team, during this time, J continued to explore local job opportunities, just in case a plan b was required.
Finally, after a four-month wait, J started her remote working role as a Customer Services Advisor with Santander Bank, able to choose the hours that suited her and the care of her children. Throughout this time, J worked well with her EC, taking encouragement at every step.
JP was facing eviction in his house in Holbeach when he first came onto the programme. Our employment support programme helped to put a pause on his eviction and he was put in touch with the housing team.
JP was offered a flat by the lighthouse in Spalding, which he has now moved into while applying for jobs such as B&M but the interview unfortunately failed. Following on from this, he went down to encore and now has a job at HP2 doing fruit packing from 3 pm to 11 pm, Monday to Friday. He’s tired but after two weeks he’s still in work and this is the longest he has had a job for.
He is currently doing really well, especially as he has no support network around him at all.
D had been job searching for 9 months and had failed to get an interview or into employment and advised us that he wanted to return to work within 1 month of starting the programme.
His job goals were discussed, and he said he would be willing to look at factory work, which he did. However, an exciting opportunity arose and was discussed, regarding a job at David Wood Bakery. Rob Hall reviewed and helped D update his CV whilst he was continuing with his IM appt with Steve Taylor. His CV and details were then sent to David Woods to apply for the position before the appt ended.
Within 30 minutes a reply was received from David Woods to advise D that he has been given an offer of employment as a Production operative along with a start date.
From originally saying he wanted to return to work within 1 month but then gaining employment within 1 hour is quite impressive!
The employer at David Woods emailed and confirmed that D did start on his start date and was looking forward to him working for them, as he is a ‘lovely lad’.
D was very pleased that he managed to attend his initial meeting and left with a job start date within an hour of contact with us.
Blog Posts
It’s not easy to admit when you need help, and it certainly isn’t easy to ask for help once you’ve admitted you need it. However, sometimes you do, whether it’s needing motivation, help with well-being, help through difficult life events such as the death of a loved one or losing your job due to health reasons, help to deal with stress, relationship difficulties or feeling hopeless, or help with mental health disorders such as depression or anxiety, we all need help from others at least once in our lives.
The ‘well-being, motivation, or losing your job due to health reasons’ aspects from above, are what we can help with. Yes, losing your job because of this, isn’t a great feeling and you may feel like giving up, but Connect2Grow can help.
Connect2Grow is available to those located in the South Holland and Boston areas who may need help whether they are struggling to find a job because they can’t find one that’s right for them, or because of health-related reasons. We offer wellbeing and motivation support via signposting, mentoring and coaching and we understand that you may feel disheartened or as if you don’t want to try, and that’s okay! It can be hard to put yourself back out there but with the help of Connect2Grow and all the well-being and motivation support that we offer, you should be back in employment in no time!
At Connect2Grow, we offer:
- CV reviews and help when writing them,
- Personal Development sessions,
- 1-2-1 help with job searching,
- Employer engagement support
- And much more
Alongside this support, you won’t receive any judgement from us, and you will be supported until you are successfully in employment. As hard as it may be to get back into employment, you will be proud once you have, as will we.
Contact us here to get involved – connect2grow@steadfasttraining.co.uk
I’m sure by now, that you know what Connect2Grow is but if not, Connect2Grow is a skills and employment service aimed at supporting residents of South Holland and Boston, delivered in partnership with Tonic Health, primarily aimed at those who are 16 plus and struggling with getting into employment due to having a health-related barrier.
And for the real reason behind this short blog post:
Since starting this campaign, as an organisation we have had more engagement on both: our website and social media, our audience reach has increased, followers have been gained and Connect2Grow has made significant progress with over 110 enrolments, 20 job starts, 40 individuals have received accredited upskilling and training and employer engagement being at an all-time high, further validating our approach.
Whilst this is all fantastic news, it’s especially important as so many individuals who didn’t give up trying to find employment, have been helped, which is incredibly commendable
If you or someone you know is 16+, from South Holland or Boston, suffers from a health-related barrier, isn’t in employment and would like support getting into employment, then please email connect2grow@steadfasttraining.co.uk with your full name and contact details, and we will get back to you regarding the support we can offer you.
Time’s up
If you wish to contact us for more information or to sign up to Connect2Grow, please email your full name and contact number to connect2grow@steadfasttraining.co.uk
