Mark Wright – Employment Support Advisor

In my role at RSBC, I get to meet and work with young people at the point at which they’re getting ready to fly and move on. Sometimes they need a little bit more confidence to do so, and a sense of where they’re going, but it’s so rewarding to see them start to embrace their future and know they’re ready to handle it.

I’ve learned so much from them along the way and have had to get up to speed myself with employment sectors I had limited knowledge of, to say the least, from fashion to horticulture to stand-up comedy.

Covid-19 has meant we’ve had to rethink a lot of what we know about employment, and how our service works. For the young people I support, it’s meant having to put aside many of their plans and aspirations, at least for the time being. What’s been positive is the way we’ve been able to work together and find ways to adapt, and I’m amazed at how resilient the young people are, and how open to making the most they can of a challenge. As blind and partially sighted people, they’ve been doing that for most of their lives, and it’s inspiring.

You know that line about what makes it worth getting out of bed in the morning? Well, working with them does.