Put That Change Into Motion

I heard about the Oxford Hub through my social worker, I was speaking to her about kind of starting a career within the industry. And she pointed me in the right direction, she got me Emma from Oxford Hub’s email. I started working here about a month and a half ago. And I have loved it ever since.

Before I started at Oxford Hub, I was a hairdresser. But I was with social services for about two years to help me with my relationship and my children. I love the help that they were giving me. And I wanted to be able to kind of help as they help as well. So I wanted to be with children and in the schools and stuff. So that's what I was doing beforehand.

It was the very start of locked down and I was in my relationship, which was quite intense. Um, so being in lockdown made that a lot harder. Being in that situation myself made me more aware of the signs, and what it’s like for other people in those situations. So, I wanted to be able to be part of an organisation that can make a change if you can see the signs or you hear of anything kind of abusive. It made me wanna be a part of a kind of organisation that wanted to help, and that makes it better for the families.

Getting back into work is quite a daunting thing. Sometimes your confidence might hit rock bottom, and you'll be really anxious. Staying inside for such a long time, just looking after one person, you're going to feel a bit scared when you're going to meet new people. Leaving your children when you've been with them for God knows how long, and they have just you to rely on. You don't really want to leave them with someone you don't know, even though they're qualified to look after them. So, in starting a job, you don't know what's to come. I guess it's kind of the unknown, that’s what the problem is. Not knowing what you're walking into and just leaving your child at the end of the day. No one really wants to do it, but to actually live it’s what you have to do. But, it's hard to set that routine again.

So, that's why I wanted to start work at the Oxford hub, so I could put that change into motion and just help the parents, help the children, and kind of help myself at the same time, and learn and understand what the changes can be that can happen. And also, teaching people how to make a change for better or worse really.

I have a lot more knowledge now on how I can help the parents and children within my school, where my children go. It's changed me in understanding what help parents need and what help the children will need to make them feel more comfortable, more settled, and, just becoming a bit more a part of the community. And being able to kind of help and support as many people as I can really. It's been very eye-opening and interesting to see what the role of a parent advocate is, and what the future holds for us really. I think we try to be as open, happy, and as easy-going as we can, and make people want to come in and talk to us really.

And learning how to set up events, classes, and stuff as well has been really good. I’m just kind of getting my foot in, and learning as I go along really. When we have to partner up in events sometimes you just won't get listened to as much as, let’s say, the people who are a bit more higher up than you. They just won't, um, take some of your ideas on board. I think it would be better for everyone to be a lot more open. And like take everyone else's opinions on board as well. I mean, that certain things weren't listened to, but this only happened once. Apart from that, everything else has been absolutely fine.

I’ve been setting up events and stuff, so after Christmas, in the new year, we'll have a lot of new things to do, hopefully. It's been great, it’s been fun. Be good to see what happens in the future.