Please welcome Joyce to Space @ The Broomhouse Hub!
Joyce Juma-Phiri is a Broomie at heart, having lived and raised a family here and being a regular visitor to The Broomhouse Hub throughout its long history. Joyce has always been committed to supporting our local community and was previously involved with The Broomhouse Empowerment project, which inspired the development of the play area and green space on Broomhouse Grove.
“Thinking back to how it was all those years ago, there was nothing like what we have today.”
With a background in academia – teaching in schools and colleges – and having worked with the likes of Four Square and Fresh Start, Joyce comes to Space armed with a wealth of knowledge on employability and how people are affected by a lack of access to job opportunities.
Her previous work includes an 8-year project at Four Square, working as a practitioner and heading up employability programmes for young people aged 16 – 25. We’re excited to welcome Joyce back into Broomhouse so that she can continue her excellent work supporting people in our community!
“There’s always more we can do, and I understand the issues here.”
Joyce’s new role focuses on overseeing two of our Training Academy projects, Pick ‘n’ Mix to Employment and Space Station: Catering & Hospitality. Complementing the Space Training Academy team, Joyce is passionate about helping people into employment and explained some key areas that are crucial to making this happen:
“The first is to maintain our person-centred approach to support – allowing people to take charge of their progress while staff walk alongside them on their way to employment. This includes developing a 1-to-1 support service for our Pick ‘n’ Mix and Space Station trainees, allowing those who do not thrive in group settings to explore their employability skills at a pace that suits them.
The Training Academy also adopts a strength-based approach to their work; Joyce explains: “It’s important to let people identify their journey. A lot of the time, we focus too much on the negatives and not the positives of our circumstances. For example, when I ask most people what they can do, they often say, ‘Oh, I’m not very good at anything’. But, when I ask them what they did in their free time last week, they might say, ‘Well, I just went hillwalking with some friends’ – a-ha! There is something you are good at; let’s look into that further!”
Our Pick ‘n’ Mix to Employment programme runs regularly throughout the year, and we’re keen to hear from anyone who might be interested in taking part. Backed by a Young Start grant from The National Lottery Community Fund, the project runs three group activities each week – a wellbeing workshop on Tuesdays, job taster sessions on Thursdays, and an employability skills session on Fridays. The project name – Pick ‘n’ Mix – comes from the flexibility to pick and choose the individual sessions that take your fancy!
Each block is eight weeks long, and 100% of the young people that took part in our latest group said that taking part had massively increased their sense of wellbeing. Temi very kindly sat down with us to share her experience with the course:
Are you looking to kick start a career or get back into employment? Unsure where to start? Just send an e-mail to joyce.juma-phiri@spacescot.org to register your interest in our Pick ‘n’ Mix programme or give us a call at 0131 455 7731.
