I’ve been with Treasure Seekers now for seven and a half years now and I can honestly say it’s the most fulfilling job I’ve ever had – but it’s taken a lot of life to reach this point!
When you’re asked the question as a youngster “what do you want to be when you grow up?”, I answered either an actress, a journalist, a social worker, a teacher, a diplomat, a linguist – all sorts of different jobs! I even spent a summer season at Butlins for work – of course I wanted to be a Redcoat but ended up waitressing!
Life sometimes, or more often than not, has different ideas and alternative pathways and I drifted into secretarial work, got married to a chap in the Royal Air Force (who I am still married to!) travelled with him on his postings in the UK and abroad, raised a family, volunteered in various places, helping out and serving others and returned to secretarial work.
As a Christian, I believe that God has a plan for my life but it seemed a long time coming – I wasn’t particularly fulfilled in my work life. Then He began to reveal His plan…
Each one of us has a unique set of gifts and talents – when I was younger I wasn’t particularly confident (probably one of the reasons I never went down the path of the becoming an actress) and I had a real sense of not wanting other youngsters to suffer with that same lack of confidence, so my initial introduction into Treasure Seekers was to offer a confidence building course. I had known Jan Burn, a director at Treasure Seekers, for some years and she continually asked me to think about volunteering at Performing Arts, which is our weekly Friday group for adults with learning disabilities, to which I always gave a resounding no! There was no way I could work with adults with learning disabilities.
After a couple of years of doing the confidence building course, Springboard, I walked into 52 Westgate Street to find the Treasure Seekers Shop all cleared out – I asked Jan what was happening and she told me that Treasure Seekers wanted to have a space just to get the word out about everything that they were involved in – she described it as a front of house for the company with the added provision of arts and crafts for the community in the same space. The only problem was they didn’t have any funding to employ anyone.
I just knew – God’s prompting – that it was the job for me! A week later I’d handed in my notice from my full time paid job and launched into Treasure Seekers on a voluntary basis and started to experience my gifts and talents come to life. I finally relented and started volunteering at Performing Arts – the best place to become a grounded person, believe me!
Six years after hosting arts and crafts and birthday parties and doing performing arts, I got a new job as the Manager of Treasure Seekers Hub at Eastgate which opened a year ago, delivering a range of activities for adults with learning disabilities. A year on, I am now an actress, writer, teacher, social worker, diplomat and a Redcoat every day! It has been an incredible time of discovery and growing and being with these adults has been such a privilege. I feel as though I’ve made hundreds of friends who really enjoy life and being able to serve and enable them to become better versions of themselves has been truly humbling. Seeing excited faces and joyous people rush into activities that I’m overseeing is amazing. I’ve certainly moved to being a better version of myself and am still on that journey.
If you’ve not been into the Hub in Eastgate Street, come and say hello – you never know, it might trigger something in you to try something you’ve always wanted to do!
