John heard about Future Pathways through a community service that his GP referred him to. John had experienced ebbs and flows in his circumstances, career, and health throughout his life. He had previously accessed other services, but he did not feel they were able to make a real difference in his life.
It took time for John to feel ready to seek support, and he had to wait many months for support to start. Although John understood why the waiting list was necessary, it was difficult to be “on hold.”
Since starting to access support from his Support Coordinator, Future Pathways has felt different to the other services John has accessed in the past.
“They were able to do what they said they would do. Future Pathways has the resources, time, and relationships with other services to actually make a tangible difference.”
For example, when John spoke with his Support Coordinator about his difficulty with sleeping, his Support Coordinator helped him explore why this was and supported him to purchase a new bed.
“It might seem small, but Future Pathways let me choose and order it. At first, I selected the cheapest option possible. But my Support Coordinator explained that we could get something better, something that would meet my needs. I feel the difference every time I go to bed.”
When John was struggling to pay energy bills, Future Pathways linked him up with a charity which helped him apply for a grant to alleviate this pressure.
“It was huge. Future Pathways have been able to help with things I never thought they could help with. A lot of other services I have worked with could only listen. Nobody was able to do something. Future Pathways really did make a tangible difference in my life.”
Future Pathways also enabled John to access ongoing support with his mental health. Now, John can speak to someone regularly about how he is coping and explore how he can take care of his mental health. Accessing mental health support has made a long–term difference to John’s life.
“Before I accessed this support, I didn’t know why I couldn’t function. They helped me figure it out for myself. And I am still figuring it out. But now, I am on that journey.”
Now, John feels he understands himself and his mental health better, and he has access to the support he needs to move forward in his life. John is more linked up with his GP and is starting to engage with the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. Accessing support through Future Pathways has helped John to learn more about himself, prioritise his mental health and make positive changes to his life.
“It really was lifechanging. It is night and day compared with what my life was like. Now, I have someone on my side. Future Pathways helped me turn my life around. I started caring about myself, because someone else was caring about me.”
We are excited to announce that Future Pathways will be hosting a live webinar about how we evaluate our service.
Created in collaboration with Matter of Focus, the webinar will take place on Zoom 12.30-1.30pm on Thursday 8 February 2024.
The event is free and you can register to attend here.
This webinar is all about how we have worked in partnership with Matter of Focus to learn more about our impact and tell a story about the difference we make.
In this webinar we will share more about:
- How we took a collaborative evaluation approach to developing our impact report.
- How combining our own evaluation with independent input enhanced our evaluation.
- How you can integrate self-evaluation into your approach to learning and improvement.
We have worked with Matter of Focus as a learning partner since 2018. Their approach and software help us evaluate our relational, trauma-informed approach, and consider how we make a difference within a complex and evolving context.
The webinar will be hosted by Dr Simon Bradstreet (Principal Evaluation Consultant, Matter of Focus), Flora Henderson (Alliance Manager, In Care Survivors Alliance) and Louise Hall (Impact and Evaluation Lead, Future Pathways).
Join us
Register for this webinar to find out more about how we have worked in partnership with Matter of Focus to understand our impact and tell a robust story about the difference we make. There will also be the opportunity to ask questions and a recording of the webinar will be shared with all those who register after the event.
Online, Zoom
12.30-1.30pm
Thursday 8 February 2023
Our partnership with Matter of Focus
At key stages in our journey, Matter of Focus helped us build our knowledge and understanding by acting as an independent learning partner. In 2023, Matter of Focus helped us review our evidence and learn more about people’s experience of the service through a series of discussions. This enabled us to develop our most recent impact report, Stepping Stones.