An emotional rollercoaster for our Renfrewshire Care Academy

We started at KDS as 13 individuals and leaving today as a family. Some of us were extremely shy at the beginning and now have confidence and are more outgoing. Every day we had a teambuilding task which helped build our relationships and confidence. This also helped improve communication and listening skills. We all had different expectations when starting. Some thought it wasn’t for them and some wanted to leave. We are all glad we stayed as we have come a long way and some have got jobs at the end of it. Some of these jobs came from placements in a care home shadowing staff in their place of work.

We first met Stevie Kidd at the Open Day and all had different opinions of him. We all thought he was off his head and one thought he looked like a gangster. After getting to know him we found a different side to him and our opinions soon changed. He is a lovely caring man and is doing all he can to help people make the most of life “BECAUSE HE CAN”. He truly is an inspiration to us all with a big big heart.

Michelle, our trainer, had the most amazing patience and taught us a lot and helped bring us together as a family. Michelle made things happen for us which we thought was impossible. She had time for each individual and gave hope and encouragement to help build our confidence. She always went the extra mile to get us to where we are today and helped us believe in ourselves. She also is an inspiration to us all and would like to give her a huge thanks for helping us and believing in us.

We have had many visits from all different inspirational people Ali G for example who told her story and we were all amazed about her positive attitude and what she has overcome. She had us thinking about ourselves our lives and how we want to live and how we choose to live. Also she had us thinking about things that have happened in our past, both good and bad, and helping us to remember the positive and how to overcome the negative. It was an inspirational experience and we all enjoyed the day and left with all sorts of thoughts in our head.

We also had visits from Karen Armstrong and Angela from Elderslie, Debbie from Mochridhe Care which were all helpful and we learned different things from each individual.

We have had lots of fun along the way, even the gym day at David Lloyd which was a killer. OMG was that a killer but it allowed us to push ourselves to new limits and we all did very well even those who were determined that they would not manage.

The KDS staff have been very friendly and extremely helpful and if it wasn’t for them collectively we wouldn’t be where we are today. They are AMAZING and have made us feel AMAZING.