Duke of Edinburgh success for Ricky

Ricky has attended Your Voice Counts groups and volunteered with us for a number of years and has recently gone on to join our staff team as a Peer Support Worker and Expert Trainer.

We’re grateful for all of the support Ricky gives us and were very proud to hear he’d recently achieved the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.

“I was greatly honoured to meet His Majesty Prince Edward with my family after I completed my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. I am grateful for the support of my friends, family, peers, and professionals who have helped me as an individual to make my dreams happen and make this incredible event happen.

“When doing my Duke of Edinburgh, I wanted to work on these goals:

Working together as a team and empowering myself to live to the full and support others to achieve the same
Being able to work and operate under pressure
Pushing myself beyond my known limits and overcoming neurodiverse issues.

“We participated in various journeys, including to the Lake District and Kielder. The final journey was in the Lake District, it was challenging; we had to map read, plan and camp. We walked up hills, along rivers, and across open fields. I was happy walking for extended periods; however, the challenges team members faced included recovering from getting lost and redirecting ourselves when the route was cut off, which created anxiety.

“We worked together as a team. We mastered the art of communication with each other to resolve conflicts, such as dealing with wildlife and lively farm animals. We walked across spectacular countryside and enjoyed nature's beauty. This has increased my enthusiasm to take up hiking as a regular hobby. An unknown interest has become a passion later on.

“I have experience in inpatient services and Community Mental Health and Learning Disability Teams so developing my skills so that I could be successful in employment is another success story.

“I owe a lot to my Job Coach called Elaine Atkinson at Your Voice Counts. The work we did together includes supporting different areas of goal setting which are communication skills and being able to overcome interpersonal conflicts within work through her one-to-one support. This has paid off and I have ended up securing paid employment as a Peer Support Worker and an Oliver McGowan Trainer in which I have used my lived experience to support other people with similar experiences to mine.

“Many thanks for reading this article and listening to my story.”

We're recruiting more people to join our team as Expert Trainers like Ricky - visit Job opportunity: Expert Trainer (yvc.org.uk) for more info.