Rodney’s story

Rodney was a Social Worker at the LB Haringey Young Adults Service (Leaving Care) when he did a Grit Programme.

I’ve had colleagues coming up to me and saying “I wish I’d been part of the Grit programme...”

At first in the workshop I couldn’t see how Grit applied to me. I certainly didn’t appreciate the ‘ground rules!’  But then gradually it began to make sense and about half way through it was like “wow! This has got me thinking in a completely different way.”

I’ve been working in the Young Adults Service for more than two years but I still felt quite new. I didn’t have a lot of confidence. After all, I’m just a social worker from overseas. I didn’t have the courage to think about being anything more. But since Grit I’ve enrolled at university on a Practice Education Course and I’ve got promoted to Senior Practitioner. All sorts of things have become possible.

The relationships I’m building with clients are on a different level. I’m able to deal with myself first – figure out that I am REALLY committed to a young person, doing more than just enough to make a problem go away. Then I can begin to deal with the young person and their issues. I’ve got clarity. It’s a clarity that creates a new dimension on how I engage with young people and their families.

County lines is a big issue. Families are not happy with us as professionals. They say that we have failed their young person.  Young people are not happy because we get in the way of them making quick money. Either way we are wrong. It can be incredibly stressful and there have been times when I was afraid for my mental health.

Grit has given me the tools and the courage to think outside the box. Now I’m able put myself in a young person’s shoes, look at the world through their eyes. And I’m also able to convey the reality of the situation to them. I’m getting clients to understand that we need to work together and then we can see how goals become possible.

The culture at work has really changed as well. Before, someone might go on annual leave without finishing a piece of work with a young person or a family. Someone else would have to pick this up, on top of everything else they have to do. There were tensions, arguments, lots of dissatisfaction, people leaving.

Now, the way we as a team relate to each other is positive and supportive.  Building relationships with each other has become a priority. The sense of being in a team of committed people, working together for the same ends, is so much stronger. We really value one another, have started to really care about each other. It is so much more inclusive, so much more supportive. Since Grit there have been had no issues that we’ve had to escalate. Staff turnover has really reduced.

The team has been empowered. I’ve been empowered. It’s changed the way I approach my work. It’s changed the way I approach my life.