After Tom Watson, a European wakeboarding champion, was seriously injured in an horrific car accident when he was just 21 he was told he would probably never walk or talk again. But through his sheer determination and the support of Working it out Tom has been able to focus on rebuilding his physical stamina, improving his memory, concentration and communication skills.
Tom is a true Working it out success story. He has just completed the first stage of a work-based horticultural qualification and has left the programme for two jobs – one with a large landscape gardening firm and another where he is working as an independent gardener for a large house in Ascot.
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"My time at Thrive was brilliant. It got me concentrating, getting to know more people and understanding different disabilities. I now have a good friend Kevin that I met on the programme – he’s a blind gardener – I never thought I would I meet a blind gardener!
"If it wasn’t for Thrive I might be stuck in a dead end job or doing nothing – with no communication skills and no strength. Even if you start off as not being that interested in gardening, being involved with Thrive is one of the best things you can do. You are never alone. Everyone – the therapists, the staff…they just do so much to help you," he says.
Working it out is designed for people like Tom who really want to get a job but whose disability or mental ill health, makes it hard for them to access training and employment opportunities. Thrive can give them the support needed to develop necessary skills, explains Thrive’s Battersea Garden Project Manager Sue Stuart who set up the programme.
"When I joined Thrive in 2006 I met employers concerned about the skills shortage in London’s parks and green spaces. This immediately made me think of the standards and skills evident in the work of disabled Thrive gardeners at our Battersea Garden Project. I knew so many of them would love the opportunity to work and decided to develop a programme to bring employers and our gardeners together," she explains.
Thanks to funding from a charitable trust, the London Borough of Wandsworth and Lantra, the sector skills council for land based industries, a three-year pilot project was launched in Battersea Park in November 2009. Working it out now has additional funding from London Councils and the European Social Fund to help 96 Londoners living with mental ill health.
People enrolled on Working it out attend the programme one day a week and work in small groups of eight to ten with one-to-one support from a Thrive horticultural therapist. They work towards a City and Guilds horticulture qualification, have access to a work experience placement with an employer – usually as part of a parks maintenance team – and gain the skills they need to hold down a job. The process will last from six months to two years depending on the individual. It’s an important element of Working it out that it’s flexible and allows people to work at their own pace.
Since November 2009 88 people have benefited from Working it Out and the impact is clear. All participants have gained in confidence, most have experienced significant improvements in their communication and work skills, four have paid gardening jobs and three have moved on to do more training.
Thrive Chief Executive Nicola Carruthers is delighted with the programme’s success. "An estimated 1.2 million disabled people in the UK want to work but are facing what sometimes seem like insurmountable obstacles such as lack of training, education and discrimination. Working it out is showing that with imagination, support and through key partnerships it is possible to make a difference and set important precedents."