Jane is a Project Worker for our Actives Lives day service based at Montefiore Road, Hove.
Jane originally trained as a journalist, took a career break to have children, then decided what she really wanted to do was to work with people. She started volunteering before becoming a support worker in our community outreach service, supporting people in their local community, as well as in our day service. It’s the atmosphere and sense of community that Jane enjoys most. ’There’s never a dull moment and no two days are the same. The different dynamics and demographic of people here at Grace Eyre lend themselves to intergenerational support. It’s wonderful to see people of all ages helping each other out. Plus I don’t think there are many jobs where people are genuinely thrilled to see you every morning!’
The role is very varied, from taking people swimming, to helping with arts and crafts sessions. The secret is to work inclusively with, rather than for, the people who use our service, in order to foster independence – ‘enabling people to do things for themselves is an invaluable life skill and at the heart of everything we do’. Facilitating cooking sessions is also part of her role – she generates menu ideas together with the people who use our service and supports them to shop, before preparing and sharing their choice of menu in our onsite training kitchen. Jane says that, ‘it’s real land to table eating in this session as some of the ingredients used are grown in our Grace Eyre allotment’.
If you’re tired of your office job, enjoy communicating, are able to understand the daily challenges that some people face, as well as having a strong sense of humour, then then this job could be for you too. Take the opportunity to thrive off the unique energy here at Grace Eyre and check out our current vacancies!