The young person learnt about COMPASS through his Personal Advisor from the 16+ team. The young person was in need of careers support since moving to his new accommodation. He was living in a youth housing project and struggled at first with this. The young person was adamant that he wanted to train as a dog groomer and said that this has been a desire of his for a long time and look towards employment in this sector. He wanted to be able to move away from the youth housing project and be able to live more independently. Living at the youth housing project the young person would need to pay the additional fees to remain living there when he was working –  this is one of the biggest barriers he was worried about and feels this would be pointless for him to work and not have anything to show for this at the end of the month.

The young person did attend some group sessions with Carefree but disengaged from this very quickly and worked with the Compass Key Worker 1:1 a lot of the time. At the beginning of the project, the COMPASS Keyworker worked hard to engage with the young person, many visits cancelled last minute, telephone call and text messages unanswered for several weeks. There has been a lot of communication between all professionals on the best way to support him. With the COMPASS Key Worker being consistent and determined the young person became very engaged and a healthy relationship was formed. The young persons PA and the COMPASS Key Worker managed to secure him a place at Cornwall College, Camborne on a dog grooming course, funding for the course and transport was sourced through the Prince’s Trust and the 16+ team.He attended for a few weeks and was really enjoying it, and spoke so highly of the course, but sadly the young person was waking up later on college days and was missing his transport for the course. It was agreed that Carefree would fund an alarm clock for him to encourage him to get into a routine of waking up early, a new mobile phone to replace his broken one was also sourced through the COMPASS Key Worker. The COMPASS Key Worker would call the young person early morning (6:30-07:00am) to check if he was awake. This was working for the first couple of weeks but again, the alarm clock was not set, phone was not charged. Sadly, the end result was the course leader removing the young person from the course. He really struggled with the theory side of the course but showed great ability during the practical. College offered him another chance to attend on the next course starting in a few months but wanted him to show willing and commitment before he attends, this attempt was unsuccessful.

Through the support that the young person received, he has now found full time employment in his local area with a well-established surveying company. The young person is using his alarm clock to wake up every morning at 06:30am and is starting to enjoy life a lot more. He is now living with his girlfriend where he shares the rent and bills. His worry was that the additional bills at youth housing project would swallow up most of his income if he had stayed so this was a big relief when he moved out. He is still keen to learn how to groom a dog professionally and will possibly pick this up in the future when funds are available. The young person appreciated the support his COMPASS Key Worker and has remained in contact since leaving the project.