Recently, Escape2Make hosted our first ever work experience student. This was a very special experience for us because the student was none other than one of our long-term participants, Jayden. Jayden first joined us back in 2022 by becoming a regular attendee of Press Club and Film Club. Since then, he has taken part in many of our other workshops, he has been an active member of the Youth Board and have also been volunteering for us since September. Because of this, it was only fitting to have Jayden as our first work experience student. In this blog, Jayden talks about their experience throughout the week, what they have learned and how they felt throughout all of it.
Hi, I’m Jayden! I’ve been involved with E2M for a couple of years now and have had the chance to do loads of interesting things. I’ve done a bit of everything from taking part in VR to woodwork and textiles to filming in my time with the charity. I’ve been a youth board member for a year and a half now, an attendee since early 2022 and a volunteer since September so I’ve seen the charity from a variety of angles and perspectives. This week I had the opportunity to add to this list by seeing it from the perspective of the team behind it all. The fabulous group that makes all the incredible clubs and events happen. So, here’s a rundown of what I got up to on my work experience week.
My first task on day one was to sit in the weekly meeting with the team; this involved listening to what everyone was working on and trying to find solutions for any issues people had encountered. We also went through my plan for the week, so I had a rough idea of what I’d be doing each day and who with. I then spent a bit of time with the Production assistant learning about the messaging software used for the club reminders and set up the reminders for this week’s press club. Then the CEO and I sat down to talk about her story and the founding of the charity (including the fun tidbit that she’s done a TED talk). I got to learn about her past and where she got the drive and idea to start the charity from. I could really see the passion she has for what she and the charity do. We talked about the values of the charity and the plans for the short, middle and long-term future and how these can happen. We then had a meeting with a member of the county council where we talked about how E2M could work with other local groups and how we can work on growing those relationships. I also got to hear some exciting news about possible spaces for the charity. I then got to have a quick look at the new website design and the backdoor of that. It was a great first day and gave me a really nice overview of what happens at the charity and what the CEO’s role is.
Day two was my first day with the Production Assistant🎉. I started the day off with some spreadsheet work (sounds boring but was actually quite fun) and started writing this blog post. I got to sit and reflect on what I’ve done as a member of the charity both in a volunteer and attendee capacity. I then got to have a look through photos from the clubs and events we’ve put on and picked some out for the new website. Then we sat down and began planning a blog post about some of E2M’s recent activity. We recently completed a combined project with a local poetry organisation (The Wordarium). The project involved having the young people of E2M be introduced to local poets and learn from them. (the blog post will be featured on our website soon!).I then spent some time looking over some participant feedback E2M had received about their ongoing clubs. The feedback would be turned into an evaluation report to help the charity improve its activity and perfect what they do. I spent the afternoon looking through photos for the articles I’m writing and photos for marketing the charity’s next big event – Green Festival 2024!!!
I spent day three with Escape2Make’s COO. We started the day off by attending a CYPMAF meeting. I got to hear about what local youth groups are doing and how they interact with each other. It was really interesting to learn how the different groups work together and just learn about the different youth services offered in the area. I then sat down with the COO to find out about how he got to his job and what he does for the organisation. He described himself as the bridge between the CEO and Chair of the charity. I learned that he organises the budgets for the charity’s clubs and events, and works alongside the production team to make sure all of the big ideas come to fruition. When we got back to the office I spent the afternoon working on the new website. I got to work on the Youth Board’s page and their pictures and bios to the website. This included picking out a brilliant picture for my brother’s page.
Day Four was my day with the Production Executive which started off with an exciting morning of looking at spreadsheets (not joking it was interesting). I got to see all the behind-the-scenes organisation of events including how he goes about finding venues, facilitators, dates and much more. Then I had more website fun- I got to start adding the pages for our exciting new Green Festival workshops. Next up, we had a meeting with the event producer for the Green Festival. We looked at the layout for the festival and had a discussion about the decorations which was very exciting. This was followed by… More website work! Specifically, a lot of hunting for photos of people and workshops. At about 3.30pm the Production Executive and I met a potential facilitator to confirm his involvement and details. We went through a plan for what the workshops would look like, how many people would be involved and what they’d be doing on the actual event day. We followed this up with a session of Press club that I attended as a volunteer. It was a very chaotic session with most of it being taken up by making a telephone with plastic cups and string and being shocked at how well they worked. I also got to take a fabulous picture of the group for my work experience photo competition and took a picture of some little creatures we’d created (some highlights being: Alvin Simon and Theodore, Hatsune Miku and an adorable otter.)
My last day :(. Today was another day which I got to spend with the Production Assistant day 🎉🎉. I started off the day with some work on my blogs- this one, a blog about Craft Club (which I am a regular volunteer for) and our wonderful blog about the Wordarium project. Then we went out to get coffee and talk about how she got to working at E2M and what she does in her day to day. I finished off my week by working on this blog!
I’ve had an amazing week and have gained some really valuable insight into how the charity runs and how everyone on the team contributes. It’s been really interesting to hear how everyone’s jobs differ but fit together to create a well-organised team, and to see what goes on behind the scenes when organising events. It has also been really insightful to see the charity from the perspective of the team. I have been given some interesting things to think about for my future as an E2M participant which will help me think about what I want to do in the future.
The Escape2Make team thoroughly enjoyed having Jayden in our office for a week. We couldn’t stop talking about how impressive he was. Needless to say, Jayden has a bright future in front of him and we are excited to support him on his journey!
