My name is Morgan Graham, and I am a Support Worker in our new Trainer Flat service in Carlisle, Cumbria.

My story may be a little different from others, but with Care Leavers' Week just passed, I wanted to share my experience as this week holds a very special place in my heart. I feel it definitely represents me as a person and gives me time to reflect on my journey transitioning from a Care Leaver to a Support Worker and putting my lived experience into practice.

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From a very young age, I was in and out of the system so many times, experiencing support from the age of 3 until I was 15 years old. I remember my education also taking a massive dip due to being in several different nursery schools, 6 different primary schools, and 3 different secondary schools. Somehow, along the way, I have still managed to come away with my GCSEs (it still blows my mind)! I experienced all different types of placements from foster homes to secure placement, then moving on back home to family, family breakdown, and being supported to secure my own property through the homeless service. My transition from being fully looked after and being supported in a placement came with its complications and a lot of traumas along the way. My story differs from other young care leavers, and I have now been full circle from being the "young person looked after" to being the "Support Worker."

As a care leaver, I was supported to move into my own flat through the homeless service, which was by far my biggest achievement in my teenage years. I had no life experience and no family support, and everything I learned around me was from close friends and support from my local council. Now, thinking about my journey so far, I’m not sure anything could have prepared me for that transition. For the last 12 years, it has been the biggest emotional rollercoaster for me, and I feel like I blinked, and  missed my teenage years. I felt like I had to mature quicker than everyone else, as I only had myself to rely on. Going from the security of a home to full independence is never easy. At times I felt very lonely, sometimes wondering if the loneliness would ever leave.

When I moved into my first flat, it was incredibly difficult learning how to manage a tenancy on my own as I didn't have the same support as others do now within Bedspace. I was so grateful to have a strong support network around me to get me on my feet, and I was also holding down 3 jobs after leaving school at 16 years of age. Living independently, in my own flat, had meant I had to learn very quickly how to contact the relevant people relating to my housing and getting needed repairs carried out. I have learned how to decorate and budget so I was able to live on limited funds.

Being fully independent made me more determined to achieve things in my life and gave me an optimistic outlook. The whole experience really helped me discover new things about myself...I’m a lot more resilient than I thought! I’ve been forced to come out of my comfort zone and navigate some of life's experiences on my own, and so far, I think I’m doing well. Recently this year I felt I was ready to look back on my story, and I was ready to put a lot of my traumas and heartbreak to rest as I always felt although I was progressing well, there was always a sense of some sort of gap in my life that I needed clarification from. I reached out to the Leaving Care Team and requested to have my files sent across to me. I feel for me this helped with part of my journey as it answered a lot of questions. I feel now that I can reflect back on this, and I have taken a lot from reading over my story, and it has made me a much stronger person and more determined to help other young people.

Which leads me on to tell you that putting all my determination and lived experience into practice had led me into my career working with the most amazing young people. My career working in supported living was not a plan I had set for myself. I originally went to college to study to be in cabin crew in the travel and tourism industry! It's fair to say I dropped out, and it wasn't for me. I was born to work, and I did what I could for an income to keep a roof over my head. I started off working with Local Councils in Scotland, doing little admin jobs to progressing on to exploring Customer Service then Housing. Along the way, other opportunities came my way to cover in the Temporary Accommodation Office where we supported people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness. This is where I felt my journey began. I learned to thrive, and the passion I shared for helping others grew every day, and learning new things about processes and safeguarding were something I enjoyed, and my knowledge grew from there. From here I moved on, and I took the leap of faith to move away from Scotland and leave my past behind. I started afresh years later, moving from Dumfries to Carlisle where I met my partner who is my biggest support system. I was working in the housing sector again, where I felt most confident but again, I felt eager to explore working in homelessness as I wanted a challenge.

I spent some time working in the Homeless hostels here in Carlisle, I went from working in an all-males secure hostel to then moving on to work with supporting 16–25-year-olds, and this is where I knew I wanted to be. For me, this job was everything and more that I loved, and it made me see that I was implementing my lived experience into my job, and it made me driven to make a difference working with young people. Along the way, I was supported by my team, and we all shared advice and guidance and built some incredible friendships, and this helped us all work together to pave the way for success stories with our service users in Carlisle. Being able to be a part of some of their life experiences has been huge for me as they were also teaching me along the way, and we were learning together. Working in this role, I felt so privileged as I was then nominated for my first "Making a Difference" award for a colleague who has a positive impact on their team or internal customer.

 

"Morgan has been an amazing asset to the team within Carlisle (young persons service, R1). She has supported young people who've experienced homelessness within our service exceptionally well, going above and beyond. Morgan has grown and developed professionally in a short space of time, following joining Riverside after being an agency worker. Morgan has single-handedly secured large amounts of funding for individual young people, enabling them to move on positively. Morgan is extremely passionate about the work she does and ensures she gets the best positive outcomes for our young people. Morgan recently has had amazing feedback from individual young people, who've mentioned what a positive impact she has had through her professional work in their lives. Morgan is a team player, always seeking to improve processes and team communication. She has worked extremely hard recently with the added challenge of being a staff member down."

 

All of this has now led me to Bedspace!

I am now part of the new team built here in Carlisle with the new ongoing project with our Trainer Flats. I feel incredibly privileged to be a part of this as this is a new project introduced to Cumbria, and we have never had a model quite like this available to Young People in Carlisle.

When I saw the advert for this position, I remember thinking, I want to be a part of this, this is something new where I can help shape and mold into a new project and implement my passion into building something new. I can honestly say working with Bedspace is still new to me, and we are all learning together as I had never had the experience of supporting UASC children. At first, I was really nervous about this, but along the way, I am learning with them about the processes, and this has helped me support them the best I can. Making this leap of faith was the best decision I ever made. So far, I have worked alongside the most amazing young people, and helping them to start a new life here in the UK is honestly the biggest reward I can take from this new experience. As our project blossoms in Carlisle and we work towards success, I look forward to what comes next, and I couldn't do it without our team and the support & guidance we receive from our Manager Mohammed Senhaji.