Case Study

Bryan's Story

Bryan is 40 years old. He has a history of mainly driving and theft related offences. His most recent offence took place in 2016 and he received 132 hours of unpaid work for this. On completion of his Community Payback Order, Bryan applied to become a Recreate Volunteer.

During his initial interview Bryan stated that his main focus was to gain employment, he had joinery and forestry experience and was already volunteering at a local bike restoration project. He wanted to work outside in some kind of environmental enhancement role.

At this point Bryan told us that he was in a stable relationship and his partner was expecting a baby which was why he was so keen to get employment as soon as possible.

Bryan successfully completed a Recreate Taster event and for the first few weeks of his volunteering with Recreate he was placed in the Recreate Growing Space in Bellahouston Demonstration Garden which is supported by Momentum Skills Scotland.  During this period he proved himself to be very reliable and hard working. 

Through discussion with the Recreate Volunteer Coordinator it was agreed that his permanent placement would be with Land and Environmental Services (LES), based at Glasgow Green.  He started in November which was an ideal time to start working with LES because they recruit for seasonal workers towards the end of February each year. Historically Recreate Volunteers who have had placements with them and been reliable and hard-working have been successful in applying, securing 6 months of paid employment.

Over the next few weeks feedback from the Placement Supervisor was excellent, Bryan was proving to be an asset to the team and all was going well. In January 2018 Bryan failed to attend his placement and we were unable to make contact with him, he later contacted the Volunteer Coordinator and it transpired that he had committed another offence in England and had been detained there. Bryan later told us, "I knew I'd messed up and I was worried because I didn't think I'd get another chance with Recreate and it had helped me lots, especially having my placement".

At the end of February, just after the closing date for the LES seasonal worker posts, Bryan made contact to ask if he could come back to Recreate, following a meeting it was agreed that he could come back to complete his 6 month placement.  At this point he acknowledged that his poor choices had once again probably cost him a good opportunity but that he needed to put that behind him and move forward. His daughter was born in March and he and his partner were working closely with Social Work Services who had some concerns regarding her care which resulted in Bryan only having supervised contact with his daughter.

Bryan went back to volunteer with LES at Glasgow Green but was also proactively looking for work at the same time. He successfully applied for a seasonal job with the Parkhead Housing Estates Team in April. Within a few weeks of starting, having once again proved himself to be a reliable member of the team he was offered a more permanent position. He said, "I was over the moon about it. It was a surprise but it showed made me that if you stick in, good things can happen."

In June Social Work Services restored full contact for Bryan with his daughter and he also married his partner. Bryan was excelling in his job and was encouraged by other team members to apply for a Team Leader position. He was notified in the July that he had been once again successful.

Bryan is now expecting his second child and doing well in his position as Team Leader. In his role he supervises some of the other Recreate volunteers who have chosen to have Parkhead Housing as their placement. He is a role model and an example of what can happen when you choose to move towards a more positive future.