My Experience
Date added: 05/12/22
"The path of my life, since I came into aftercare, has completely changed for the better, and I hope that more young people/adults who had troubled starts may get this service.”
*This is a short blog from a young person who came through our service. We have withheld his name.
I have been asked if I would be willing to write a brief blog entry detailing my experience of Attuned Programmes, which I was only too happy and more than willing to do.
I am in the final stages of my stay in aftercare, and as I look back on my experience, the support that was provided to me, and the opportunities that I was given, I feel a deep sense of gratitude and fortune.
When I entered aftercare with Attuned Programmes at the age of 18, I had been through a lot (that I won’t detail here), and on paper, my future was less than promising. But aftercare provided me with a safe, non-judgmental space to live, coupled with a committed staff team that truly and thoroughly wanted the best for me.
It was initially difficult to trust the staff due to past experiences, but it became increasingly clear as time went on that these were not dime-a-dozen “care-workers,” who would blow away at the first wind, completely forgetting you in the process. No, it became clear that Futurescape, and the staff that it employed, were deeply committed to helping me create a better life for myself, and that they were willing to put in a tremendous amount of effort and emotional energy in this respect.
Ah well, it comes with the territory, better luck with the next one, aye.
I got the sense that if my life collapsed back into hell, they would be genuinely upset about this, and not just casually dust off their jacket and shrug their shoulders and say: “Ah well, it comes with the territory, better luck with the next one, aye.”
My experience is that Attuned Programmes genuinely, and truly, cares, and my experience of life has taught me—especially as a child in care—that this is rare, and should be embraced with arms as open as one can manage.
I don’t know who will be reading this, whether it will be a future staff member, or maybe even a future service user, but I will finish by saying this: The staff really do care, and my experience has been if you engage with the service as best as you can manage, things improve. The path of my life, since I came into aftercare, has completely changed for the better, and I hope that more young people/adults who had troubled starts may get this service.