Case study Joanne Scott – Community Development Worker
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Many people become a learning professional by grasping unexpected opportunities. Joanne gained extra qualifications for a career that brings her the ultimate job satisfaction. Education to employment Joanne left school without the necessary qualifications to do what she’d always wanted, which was to work with disabled children. Her career began through a YTS training scheme working with adults with learning disabilities and, during this time she studied for her NVQ level 2. “I found doing the NVQ better suited my learning style. It allowed me to focus on what I was doing and I was able to get more support and have more time to do it.” After 18 months on the training scheme, Joanne was offered a full time role at an organisation, working with adults who have learning disabilities. “Although working with adults was not what I originally intended to do, having spent so much time with them on my training scheme I’d come to find it was rewarding.”
During this time Joanne completed her NVQ level 3 and a City and Guilds qualification, going on to achieve her 7307 teaching award, training to be an assessor. “What really helped at the time was that while I was training for my assessor’s award I was also training people at the company I was working for on self advocacy and speaking up.”
Finding her field
More for Joanne, more for her volunteers
Since 2003 Joanne has been a community development worker, the last five of those years working for Darlington Borough Council in the ‘Connecting Communities’ section. Her role involves working with two of the most deprived wards in Darlington. In these wards Joanne works with volunteers in community partnership, who come together to try and improve the quality of life in the area by identifying issues and creating projects to counteract these issues then.
The most satisfying part of Joanne’s role is seeing how volunteers, who are integral to the success of the community partnerships, learn and develop. “One person I supported, who had not worked in years, became a volunteer on a community partnership and went on to become a youth worker.”
Part of Joanne’s role is also about empowering volunteers. She acts as a coordinator within her community partnerships, holding volunteers hands when necessary but also backing off and letting them take the reigns when appropriate. “My role is so varied. Today I’ve been working with a group who have raised over 100k to build a park in an area where previously there was nothing for children to do, yesterday I was negotiating who will pay the electricity bill for a project that saw a video camera being installed at a community centre, by tomorrow I could be helping sort out a mattress that’s on fire in a park!”
One of the most challenging parts of the role is keeping volunteers interested and enthusiastic. “Funding applications can take a long time, and it can be difficult to keep people involved. We also have to be a face for the council, often acting as signposts for information in the community.” Recently Joanne has completed her Sociology and Community Development Degree, and although this has equipped her with the tools to go into a management role, she’s not sure if that’s what she wants to do.
“I love my job. I thrive on working on the ground face to face with people – if I take that away I don’t know if I’ll get the same satisfaction.” We asked Joanne if she had any advice for someone considering a career as a community development worker, to which she replied: “Make the most of your opportunities and be prepared to do lots of volunteering, working from the bottom up.”
“One person I supported, who had not worked in years, became a volunteer on a community partnership and went on to become a youth worker.”
The information provided in this case study is not prescriptive or indicative of how to become a learning professional. For details on how to become a learning professional, please see the factsheet found on our website below. RW06/10/CS041
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Information and Advice Service
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