Emma is 18 and has been involved with Hot Chocolate for two and a half years.
After leaving school at 16 she went to college, but found it too stressful to juggle study with a job and so left college to concentrate on her employment. In April 2009 Emma joined Hot Chocolate’s Youth Team, and set herself personal goals of gaining confidence, speaking to new people, learning life skills such as cooking and budgeting her finances and learning the guitar. Hot Chocolate enabled Emma to develop a social network and supported her in completing job applications which resulted in her gaining employment at Tesco last year.
"I’m working at Tesco’s but looking for another job," says Emma, "I’d like to get another job soon and would like to travel to America. Hot Chocolate helped me get a job, and got guitar lessons which help explore my talents."
"Youth Team helped me meet new people and gain volunteer experience," she says.
"When I started at Youth Team I had so little confidence that I struggled to even ring the buzzer when I arrived at Hot Chocolate for a meeting. After a couple of months I overcame this particular challenge." Meanwhile her confidence has grown to the extent that she co-led a gig in August – working with her peers and supporting and organising others to plan the event. As Emma says: "Now I am much more comfortable with new situations and meeting new people."
Emma worked on budgeting her weekly finances with her one to one support worker, and with another Youth Team member learned new cooking skills and prepared a meal for the volunteer team. She also learned the guitar and continues to develop her playing outside of Hot Chocolate.
By September 2009 Emma had progressed significantly with her goals and although she has dropped out of college, has successfully sustained her employment.
As a result of her involvement in Youth Team, Emma says she "has much more confidence and willingness to try new things. I have now begun the process of looking for other volunteering opportunities and was awarded a 100 hour Millennium Volunteering Award when I completed my Youth Team experience."