Find out how Appiah got back into full-time work, how Grant can now count himself as a writer and how communication skills helped Brij to get his dream job - in social care.
Trainee case studies
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Khadija Abdelhamid
Before coming to Poached Creative, Khadija was very proactive and was running her own gun and knife crime organisation, UNITY. Originally Sudanese, she came to Britain at the age of 6 and now lives in Wembley with her family.
Khadija became involved with Poached Creative as she found out about the Peabody knife crime poster campaign, Choose Life; Drop the Knife, which we were working on with a group of young men from Faces in Focus. After reading all about the campaign on our website she got in touch.
Khadija also took part in Poached Creative’s training programme where she was able to develop her skills, which she feels has helped to develop her campaign.
“I feel that Poached has not only helped me to improve my writing skills, but has taught me how to put an article together and how to use blogging platforms, which has been a huge help”
One of Khadija’s biggest achievements was interviewing Guardian journalist, Paul Lewis which was played at the launch of a collaborative exhibition of Poached Creative, Mediorite and Art Against Knives on Freedom.
Khadija left Poached Creative in 2012 to go to college. She hopes to go to university later this year to study Business Management and to continue running her organisation, UNITY. She feels that Poached Creative has played a great part in helping her plan for the future.
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Emma
Emma came to Poached Creative in August 2012 after a longer-than-expected period of unemployment that left her feeling depressed and uncertain about her future.
After spending six weeks on the Poached Creative writing and communications training programme and continuing as a volunteer, she is now doing paid work as a web editor for a client website.
"Poached Creative has brought me from darkness to light," Emma says.
"I was just going around wondering what was going to happen and now I'm fully embedded into the world of work."
She hopes to continue to develop her proofreading, editing and writing skills and remain in work once this short-term project comes to an end.
Emma spent 15 years working as a teacher and lecturer and worked as an Education Programmes Co-ordinator with the Windsor Fellowship. She left teaching to pursue other goals but once she had been out of work for some time she found it difficult to get the chance she needed to start afresh.
With the help of Poached Creative Emma has been able to gain some new skills and get her confidence back.
She feels that, "Poached Creative has been a turning point for me. It has given me the opportunity to volunteer, to do media training and become familiar with Linked In, Twitter and Blogger."
For the latest updates from Emma follow her on Twitter.
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Appiah Sackey
Appiah attended training with Poached Creative after three and a half years of being unemployed, in the hope of regaining his confidence as a writer. He has now completed a 9-month contract as full-time editorial assistant at the NHS Confederation.
Originally from Ghana, Appiah has been living in London for 25 years. He has a BA in English and Sociology and a Master's degree in Commonwealth Studies.
He left the council without preparation and lived for two years on his savings. When his savings ran out he started looking for a job and realised that his confidence had gone. He then signed on, which he was doing for one and a half years, before he enrolled on a 12 weeks training course with Poached.
Appiah said: “Poached Creative gave me a chance to do something that I wanted to do. I was able to use my skills and I was with people who were prepared to share skills and teach me something. They allowed me to regain confidence gradually by not throwing me in at the deep end. I was originally given simple straight forward editing jobs but I still found it awkward.”
“They drew up an agreement of what I would be doing and achieving over the six weeks. When it finished I signed up for another six weeks because I found it so useful.”
Appiah found part-time work for a web marketing company doing editing and blog management and also did freelance writing and editing for Poached Creative. In July 2012 he was offered a six-month contract as editorial assistant at the NHS Confederation.
Trainee case studies
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Khadija Abdelhamid
Before coming to Poached Creative, Khadija was very proactive and was running her own gun and knife crime organisation, UNITY. Originally Sudanese, she came to Britain at the age of 6 and now lives in Wembley with her family.
Khadija became involved with Poached Creative as she found out about the Peabody knife crime poster campaign, Choose Life; Drop the Knife, which we were working on with a group of young men from Faces in Focus. After reading all about the campaign on our website she got in touch.
Khadija also took part in Poached Creative’s training programme where she was able to develop her skills, which she feels has helped to develop her campaign.
“I feel that Poached has not only helped me to improve my writing skills, but has taught me how to put an article together and how to use blogging platforms, which has been a huge help”
One of Khadija’s biggest achievements was interviewing Guardian journalist, Paul Lewis which was played at the launch of a collaborative exhibition of Poached Creative, Mediorite and Art Against Knives on Freedom.
Khadija left Poached Creative in 2012 to go to college. She hopes to go to university later this year to study Business Management and to continue running her organisation, UNITY. She feels that Poached Creative has played a great part in helping her plan for the future.
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Emma
Emma came to Poached Creative in August 2012 after a longer-than-expected period of unemployment that left her feeling depressed and uncertain about her future.
After spending six weeks on the Poached Creative writing and communications training programme and continuing as a volunteer, she is now doing paid work as a web editor for a client website.
"Poached Creative has brought me from darkness to light," Emma says.
"I was just going around wondering what was going to happen and now I'm fully embedded into the world of work."
She hopes to continue to develop her proofreading, editing and writing skills and remain in work once this short-term project comes to an end.
Emma spent 15 years working as a teacher and lecturer and worked as an Education Programmes Co-ordinator with the Windsor Fellowship. She left teaching to pursue other goals but once she had been out of work for some time she found it difficult to get the chance she needed to start afresh.
With the help of Poached Creative Emma has been able to gain some new skills and get her confidence back.
She feels that, "Poached Creative has been a turning point for me. It has given me the opportunity to volunteer, to do media training and become familiar with Linked In, Twitter and Blogger."
For the latest updates from Emma follow her on Twitter.
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Appiah Sackey
Appiah attended training with Poached Creative after three and a half years of being unemployed, in the hope of regaining his confidence as a writer. He has now completed a 9-month contract as full-time editorial assistant at the NHS Confederation.
Originally from Ghana, Appiah has been living in London for 25 years. He has a BA in English and Sociology and a Master's degree in Commonwealth Studies.
Appiah worked with Waltham Forest Council for 13 years as an information officer. He said: “...I overstayed. I didn’t like it anymore.”
He left the council without preparation and lived for two years on his savings. When his savings ran out he started looking for a job and realised that his confidence had gone. He then signed on, which he was doing for one and a half years, before he enrolled on a 12 weeks training course with Poached.
Appiah said: “Poached Creative gave me a chance to do something that I wanted to do. I was able to use my skills and I was with people who were prepared to share skills and teach me something. They allowed me to regain confidence gradually by not throwing me in at the deep end. I was originally given simple straight forward editing jobs but I still found it awkward.”
“They drew up an agreement of what I would be doing and achieving over the six weeks. When it finished I signed up for another six weeks because I found it so useful.”
Appiah found part-time work for a web marketing company doing editing and blog management and also did freelance writing and editing for Poached Creative. In July 2012 he was offered a six-month contract as editorial assistant at the NHS Confederation.
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Lilly Cook
Since starting with Poached in April 2011, Lilly has been shortlisted for an apprenticeship at Channel 4 and has attended media training with BBC journalists.
Lilly says: "I now know that I am 100% sure that I want a career in some sort of media."
Lilly says: "I now know that I am 100% sure that I want a career in some sort of media."
She was a leading member of Heart n Soul’s media team, creating an accessible website on the Paralympics. Over the Olympics she'll be providing information and a voice for people with disabilities. See her work at www.gamesthroughoureyes.com
Lilly also writes for YH! World, tweets @lillypoached and is on the lookout for her next big opportunity.
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Grant Kingsnorth
“Beyond my wildest dreams” is how Grant Kingsnorth describes the opportunities he has had since joining Poached Creative. Before starting the six-week training programme as a writing and communications trainee, Grant had never thought about a career in journalism.
With the help of Poached, Grant started up his own blog in May 2010.
“I’m proud of my blog, I had no idea it would last this long,” he said.
Grant wasn’t too familiar with working on IT equipment. Since training with Poached, his IT skills have improved and he is now a little more comfortable with using email to contact people and the internet to research information.
He said: “Since joining Poached my writing style has improved, attitude to work has changed and I have revised my career goals.”
Poached has opened new doors for Grant. He had his first story for the Hackney Citizen newspaper published on the front page and is still contributing to the paper. He also had the chance to do work experience at BBC London.
"I wouldn’t have achieved this without the support from the people at Poached," Grant said. “I’m more positive and confident in my own ability.”
He started paid work with us in November as a writing and communications mentor and says he loves every minute of it.
“It’s one of the nicest places to work, it’s chilled out, I’m enjoying myself so much, it doesn’t feel like a workplace.”
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Angela Williams Angela became interested in writing in her teens but getting into the media industry was tough, so she worked in admin to support herself. She really hoped that her last job as a PA in an advertising agency would offer her an opportunity to progress. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with depression and became disillusioned with her job. She went on sick leave and never returned.
She said: “I wasn’t ready to go back into full-time work so I thought about volunteering. I saw an advert for Poached Creative offering training in writing and communications for the long-term unemployed. A few weeks later I had started the course and was learning so much!”
Angela was tasked with writing web copy for a London-based charity and working with the director on Poached Creative materials. She also helped to develop the training programme that Poached Creative still runs now.
“The fact that I was entrusted with the project made me feel incredibly empowered,” she said.
After 12 weeks with Poached Creative, Angela was encouraged to apply for a media team internship with Save the Children and got it against stiff competition. She said: “I volunteered for six months at Save the Children as a digital media assistant working on the campaign to end child poverty in the UK.
After 12 weeks with Poached Creative, Angela was encouraged to apply for a media team internship with Save the Children and got it against stiff competition. She said: “I volunteered for six months at Save the Children as a digital media assistant working on the campaign to end child poverty in the UK.
“I then went on to work at a publishing and events company to help with the marketing and PR for an annual event in Washington DC for the aid and international development sector. I got to write lots of press releases and I was in charge of updating the event's Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages.”
With all this experience, she’s now being paid to write and is currently a temp with the communications team of Blue Cross, an animal charity.
“I’m still struggling with depression but I love writing and I know this is what I am meant to do for a living.”
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Chris Warburton
Chris Warburton
Prior to his time with Poached Creative Chris wouldn’t have dreamt of describing himself as a writer.When he first started his initial placement as a writing and communications trainee he was not long out of rehabilitation for problems with alcohol and wasn't sure what to expect. But he soon started to enjoy what he was learning and the opportunity to improve his writing. At the end of the six-week programme he decided to extend his time at Poached to build on what he's learnt and boost his experience.
“My writing style completely changed – for the better! I gained a lot of confidence and felt ready to take on new opportunities,” he said.
Another six weeks on and Chris was offered the volunteer role of editor at yhworld.co.uk – an online magazine aimed at young people aged 14-20 years old.
Just one year after being in residential rehab, Chris found himself working towards his new grand scheme of becoming a journalist.
He was asked to work for two days a week but most weeks Chris devotes double that amount of time to his responsibilities. He sees the site’s main function as flagging up what is going on for young people, such as arts, events, training and volunteering opportunities.
As a result of YH World’s success, (the site gets around 4000 hits a month) Hackney Today, the borough’s newspaper, invited the magazine to edit a two-page spread once a month and Chris took on that role too.
Chris says: “The whole Poached experience has given me a real purpose and helped me figure out what I want to do in life.” He sees it as a stepping stone on the way to his two main goals; staying sober and earning a living as a writer.
All things considered, Chris can say he is in a good place, "I have new skills coming out of my ears."
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Brij Burrun
Feeling unmotivated and looking for direction with his life, Brij was one of the first trainees to join Poached Creative. He wasn’t sure what to expect or what the end result might be.
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Brij Burrun
Feeling unmotivated and looking for direction with his life, Brij was one of the first trainees to join Poached Creative. He wasn’t sure what to expect or what the end result might be.
He said: “I honesty think if it hadn’t been for Poached, I probably wouldn’t have even bothered looking for a job in the care field, so right now I would still almost certainly be unemployed and very frustrated.
“I eventually managed to find myself a job, which was my main priority to begin with. I found myself a job in a field that I thought I wouldn’t be able to get into.”
Poached Creative has been a big help to Brij’s future. He has developed a greater awareness and confidence in his written work, which helped a lot, as he would get anxious when communicating with people verbally.
Through the training program he learnt how to write in various different styles and write more effectively. He discovered the power of communication and how to use the tools of communication.
“The great thing about being with Poached Creative was not only did I eventually manage to find a job, but I found greater belief and confidence in myself to find a job that I have always dreamt of doing.”
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BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Hackney Academy
The
BBC took up residence in Hackney in June, when the Radio 1 and 1Xtra
Academy, designed to inspire and equip young people to build a career in
media, opened its doors to 10,000 local young people.Poached Creative and YH World were chosen to run the journalism sessions, providing about 200 young people with practical training, supportive mentoring and valuable industry opportunities. Read all about it.
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