Alex's supported employment journey

After being introduced to Kent Supported Employment, Alex was able to take the next steps in his adult life by getting a bus pass and starting a part time work experience placement with Involve Kent.

He now works for us and is gaining confidence and skills everyday.

Watch Alex's video to find out more about his journey to employment.

Alex's video transcript

[Music]

Hi my name's Alex and I'm here to talk about my experience with Kent Supported Employment.

[Title: What were you doing before KSE?]

After an unsuccessful three years at university, due to not dealing with anxiety and depression, I was forced to move back in back in with my parents, feeling very run down, no aim, no goal, don't know where to go, don't know how to get there.

My mother decided to look into getting a diagnosis for autism and I then get a diagnosis for moderate Asperger’s, which is a form of high functioning autism and after that she started searching into trying to get assistance from various government services, which is what led her to discovering about Kent Supported Employment.

[Title: How did KSE support you?]

After being introduced to Kent Supported Employment, we first got to work on getting me a bus pass, which would open up many an opportunity for things like work experience and all those sorts of things.

It subsequently led to some part-time work experience with a charity organisation called 'Involve', which was really good for helping me with building structure into my day, it was a good sense of routine as well as experience in an office and interacting with other people, which subsequently led to full time work experience for KCC, for about one month.

[Title: Where are you now?]

So, I've now been working with KCC for a year and a half and it's been a fantastic experience so far. It's given me just what I needed with a regular routine, as well as just communication skills, working with other people, office skills, working on the job and it's even brought me out of the depression that I was in and I'm now able to engage with people around me, with the world around me, with a smile on my face. I'm able to enjoy things now from a place in which I couldn't enjoy things and it's generally been a real life-saver.