It’s simple, really: I just wasn’t interested in lining people’s pockets. I wanted to put my efforts into something with real social value. The ngdp gave me the opportunity to do that and to develop a really exciting career at the same time. I’m coming to the end of my two years now and I’ve found the whole experience very rewarding. In fact, the more I progress, the more rewarding it gets.
My favourite project was one where I took the lead on submitting a bid to government for £3.5 million to develop a new youth centre. I came up with the idea, I found the building that we proposed to use, and I put the proposal together. That kind of work takes a lot of creative thinking, but it also relies on your communication skills, because you need to talk to people to find out what’s actually needed and what kind of initiative would benefit the local community. We were awarded the funding. It was a total career highlight for me, and the money will be put to work to create career paths and give young people fun activities to get involved in, as well as tackling social exclusion.
At the moment I’m involved in a project called Victims of Violence. I know this is going to be one of the most rewarding projects that I ever work on because of the subject matter and the potential for change. It involves developing and implementing initiatives to address domestic violence, and I’m focused on making sure we take a more pro-active approach to this. There are some harrowing statistics on domestic violence – three people in Islington died last year as a result of it. So my work could actually be nothing short of life saving. But even if I just make things better for one person, it will have been worth it.
All my projects have been very varied. You find yourself doing all kinds of things and talking to all kinds of people. I’ve even been involved in organising the switching on of Christmas lights. There really is never a dull moment.
I’d say that if you want to do something a bit different, and something that actually changes the world around you, do this. Even when you’re working on a long term project, you feel the difference you’re making. Like any job, there are times when you get frustrated, but the rewards make it more than worthwhile.