My goals
At the start of 2023, I made it a goal to find employment for the first time since my stroke. Still, this was a lofty goal for me, mainly because I haven’t been employed for the last 5+ years and going from that straight into work might have been too much for me. Still, I knew I had 6+ years of skills that could translate into something useful for an organisation, but I needed to figure out what that would be.
Joining Cedar
In October of 2022, I joined the Cedar Foundation. I was referred to them by a specialist who deals with brain injuries. After a period of what could be described as growing pains, I met my key worker, Kieran McKeown, who has been ruthlessly optimistic about me and the skills I have to offer; we have been working on polishing those up to find work whilst I have been doing that I took part in training for interviews which can be one of the most complex parts of finding work.
After going through mock interviews, Sinead, who is a service manager, said that the skills I had would be more suited toward a social media role; it was through that conversation that I was recommended to the communications department as an example of what could be a pilot scheme for helping people put those skills to work to help both themselves but also Cedar.
Meeting the team ( realising how incredible they are)
I met with the team in December of 2023, Ciara, David, and Rhona. After chatting with them, I knew they were passionate about their jobs, helping people, and improving society. Of course, I figured out very quickly that my suggestions were good, but the team is like myself in that they would need 2 of each of them to try and implement all the changes I suggested.
Working with them & getting to know them
I got to spend time with the whole team getting to know what their driving motivation is for each of them.
Ciara
Ciara, who was passionate about getting more eyes on the website, talked about ways to improve the structure of information passed through the team and hopefully lift a bit of pressure put on the team. I wish I could have gotten more time to chat and work with her.
I felt a kinship because we both have similar backgrounds. She is a stroke survivor, and we both write a blog, but I feel her to be senior to me in those matters as she is also interested in creative writing. p.s. Ciara, if you are reading this, I hope you do write those books you never got the chance to.
David
David was the leading man that I dealt with. He is a passionate person with a light soul who wants to help people both at work and outside it, as he has his charity dedicated to helping those with autism, which I have linked here: he also thinks like myself in that he pushes for accountability with those that he works with.
I will admit I felt ashamed that I hadn’t done as much as I could compared to what David is doing, but I’m so glad to have met him because I will be changing things in the future. If I can do more, I will thank you for kindling a fire in me.
Looking back on it, When I first met him, he was the first person I laid the bulk of my criticism on because he managed the social media for Cedar. Of course, this was before I knew everything that this team of 3 had to do, and I felt the need to apologise to him on my last day with him for the stick I gave him.
Rhona
Rhona was the second person I dealt with, and I learned a ton of stuff behind the scenes such as how they organise and plan events and press events. I had the chance to see the things she is passionate about and her drive to improve not only the place where she works but also parts of society through her fostering of the user forum, which helps to provide a voice for their service users to advocate for a more inclusive community. If you want to read more about the user forum, you can click this link: https://www.cedar-foundation.org/user-forum
I will also be producing a podcast for the user forum, which I will link back here in the future.
Finishing up my work with them
im glad I was able to keep up with everything they gave me, but at the end of my work experience, I was offered the task of creating a blog post for Cedar about myself and my work with Cedar, which you can read here:
On top of that, I got to meet some fantastic people and have felt a fire being kindled in me to do more, not just in terms of my blog but also in terms of helping people.
Giving back to Cedar
I have taken on the projects as a way to thank the team. im going to be in charge of creating podcast content for their user forum, which helps to provide a lot of feedback ranging from readability to accessibility to many local services and health and care services in Ireland and Northern Ireland
In closing
I think the Cedar Foundation is a fantastic charity, and if you get the chance to work with them either as a service user or in a work experience/employee role, I would recommend that to anyone.
I am with The Cedar Foundation as part of their SkillSet service, meaning I receive pre-employment training and preparation to enhance my chances of finding employment. You can find out more about the service here: https://www.cedar-foundation.org/skillset
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If you want to check out The Cedar Foundation and see the cool stuff they are doing, check out their links below
The Cedar Foundation: https://www.cedar-foundation.org/
The vision for The Cedar Foundation: https://www.cedar-foundation.org/our-vision
I wrote a post for The Cedar Foundation: https://www.cedar-foundation.org/News/andrews-blog
The Long Road Ahead 
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