Brigita's story

After graduating university with a degree in Criminology and Sociology, I didn’t have any real idea of what I wanted to do for a career. I found myself managing a pub in Chiswick, and around this time I spoke to a friend of mine who told me about Look Ahead. She had joined as an apprentice and had worked her way up to a Team Leader position.

She was very positive about the environment and the opportunities she’d been given. I liked the idea of benefitting from a supportive organisation whilst also being able to give back to the community. Following her advice, I applied for a position and began working as an Assistant Support Worker at one of our homelessness services in Hammersmith and Fulham.

Supporting customers was certainly a new challenge, but I’ve always had a ‘can-do’ attitude and the support of management helped my development in the role. I then transferred to our learning disabilities service in Brent as Team Leader, and then eventually took a position at our recovery mental health service in Barnet.

The service provides short-term accommodation to people experiencing a crisis in their mental health. I enjoyed the fast-paced nature of the service, being at the start of a customer’s journey to recovery and giving them a good foundation to build on as they worked on getting back into the community. We were able to be creative with our support plans, adapting them to be focussed on discharge to help customers set their own goals. We set up in-house activities such as art therapy, and collaborated with other services in the community to give customers an idea of what they could achieve after they left us.

In 2019 I began a secondment at our head office as HR Project Manager, a role focussed on creating the Contract Managers’ manual. With my experiences working across multiple specialisms, I was able to share what I had learned with other staff which was a really satisfying opportunity. I had incredible support from senior management and was encouraged to bring my own ideas rather than being told what to do.

Making connections with staff at head office and seeing first hand how they support our operations staff gave me a more holistic understanding of how the organisation works.

I’m now working in a new role leading our Customer Contact Centre, using my knowledge of central services and operations to continue to build on the quality of the service we provide to customers.

My time at Look Ahead shows that opportunities are there if you want to take them. You are encouraged to push yourself, step out of your comfort zone whilst knowing you’ll be fully supported along the way. The organisation is focused on their staff and takes feedback seriously, always looking for ways to further improve the environment for staff. Your individual skills will be recognised, and Look Ahead will give you what you need to grow through training and support.

Explore our Central Support service.