Life in lock down by Elliott Wright

Life in lock down is challenging for all of us, let alone for our young people in permanent residential care. The below story is how one of our young people stepped up and ended up supporting the interior design of our soon to be fully Ofsted registered new residential home.

At all times social distancing measures were maintained and adhered to:

It was like the 60 second make over last week at one of our new homes within First Blue. Our new home soon to receive young people had an entire make-over within 5 days, from the walls to the windows. Even the outside of the house was painted! Ensuring that the home was brought back to its former glory and making sure it is ready to receive our new young people once Ofsted Registered.

We have to make a special mention to one of our young ladies being looked after in the group, now she has a keen eye for interior design, although she will never admit it, but if it’s one job she loves, it’s decorating the homes!
The guys working the next day received a phone call preparing them for the days ahead to help with the huge task that had been set before them.

Our Young Project Manager was beaming for action to get going, she had an absolutely solid plan over the next few days, initially we went to Belhurst, sat down and ordered all the bigger items like the fridge freezer & washing machines etc online, arranging all the click and collects ready to go. A few websites and a couple of hours later the larger items had been ordered, our young lady had gone through every item that she thought would be reasonable to order online instead of going to the shops to collect, with the current circumstances it made complete sense.

It was time to set off and head to our first shop! It was exciting! Whilst also having the extra challenge of maintain and complying with social distancing. We had the company credit card at the ready, grabbed 2 trolleys and joined the queue to enter. Our young lady took the lead on everything whilst out shopping, we literally pushed the trolley for her, she did the rest. We offered guidance where it was needed, if there was multiple colours we gave our advice and when we needed to pay that’s where the adults were needed!

Over the next few days the items for the home had been collected, hours of driving back and forth between Belhurst and any place that the items could be found. The car was filled every single time, with tons of trips completed. The adults and our young lady even had to borrow the van a couple of times just to get the extra large items, to the smallest kitchen utensil.

Whilst this was going on and items were being delivered to the home, the builders were also working tirelessly within the house restoring it, day in day out until the work was complete. With adults and our young lady collecting supplies as the week went ahead, even doing a few food runs for other members of the teams.

Once all the shop runs were completed, it was time to begin the cleaning, our young lady was very insistent that she was to get the job done, she went from top to bottom in the home, cleaning and making sure it was spotless to place everything within the house to make it start to look like a home.

Towards the final day, once the cleaning had been finished and the house was looking spotless, everything that had been purchased to decorate the home was cleaned, tags removed and moved into the main home. The process took all day, but eventually it was complete, the house looked amazing. Our young lady, once again has done us proud. Now we all look forward to the next project within First Blue, to be able to continue with those incredibly high standards our young person has set.

Elliot Wright (RSW)