I joined Sheffield Futures as a Health and Wellbeing Practitioner. I’d come from another service where I was a Youth Worker. The culture was immediately different. In one of my first All Staff conferences, they did a fake Oscars awards. People voted on things like, ‘Someone who has been really supportive at work’ and the winners won these tiny fake Oscar trophies.
“I realised that I’d never worked in an environment like this – where achievements are not only noticed, but celebrated across the charity.”
The Wellbeing Practitioner role was magic. When I started, colleagues were really welcoming and supportive, showing me how the role and the organisation worked. Everyone was really passionate about what we did and why we did it and we also had so much fun together. I still hear the same from new starters. It’s fascinating meeting the young people who come to us for support, hearing about their experiences and views on the world. I really love the diversity that you get from working in a city centre.
I’m now the Youth and Wellbeing Coordinator, managing our Door43 Health and Wellbeing offer and Youth Work too. I’ve had loads of opportunities to develop my skills, lots of peer support – and training around management and leadership. As part of the Leadership Team, I really value that the Strategic Leadership Team collaborates with us to develop services and I know it’s not tokenistic.
It’s sometimes a very fast-paced place to work. Occasionally that’s challenging, but we have the culture to try new things, change them if they don’t work and do something else!
We don’t take ourselves too seriously either – we do the serious stuff, but we also get to have a laugh.
Chris Wortley, Youth and Wellbeing Coordinator