What's it like working as a support worker? - My Trip to Tanzania (Post 6) - Dance Saturday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
Today, I'm going to be talking about my experiences so far with working as a support worker for Project 21.
Before I get onto this post, if you haven't heard about the story so far regarding the Tanzania project, then I would encourage you to click on the My Trip To Tanzania label at the bottom of this post to get up to speed. However, if you haven't already heard, I will also just briefly explain. Basically, I'm planning on going to Tanzania in the summer of 2022 in order to complete the enrichment part of my IB course and to support vital elephant conservation work that is currently going on in the area so in order to do that, I need to raise money. Part of my plan to raise money was to work as support worker at Project 21, a musical theatre group that supports people with Down's Syndrome. I was going to get paid £8/hour for my work with the group, but my plan was put on hold when the 3rd UK lockdown came about, and the group couldn't afford to pay me until I was back in classes in physical form. However, although it initially deterred me a bit, it has not stopped me trying my best to be a helpful volunteer support worker online in the midst of a pandemic. This is what it's like to be a support worker.
In college, my teachers are taking the time during online learning to knuckle down with the theory part of the IB dance course so as of thus far, I have not done any practical work in dance with my class at school. It is therefore refreshing to get up and get moving every Saturday morning for another brilliant class with Project 21. Granted, it's semi-early in the morning, at 9:30am, and it's 2 hours on Microsoft Teams but the atmosphere is so uplifting. Seeing how effective and influential dance and the performing arts in general is on these students, is so amazing to see. My job in this whole process is to just encourage the students and I probably look like one of the students at times but I guess that it's kind of supposed to be that way because I want the students to know that I'm on the same level as them and that I'm just there to make their lives a little bit easier. Last week was boyband week and the theme for the week before that was girl power and it was funny because all you could see on the video was me doing air guitar to Queen or shaking my hips to pop music. Some of the students will just sit there and do nothing throughout the whole performance which is fine because they're not obliged to get up and dance if they're not feeling up to it. However, there is also a funny comparison with the performance savvy students who just love to give all the attitude in their dancing. Last week, we even asked for some solos from some of the students and one girl chose to dance to Mama Mia and she went for it. She showed everyone her best moves, flipping right left and centre and everyone clapped in appreciation at the end. It requires effort and persistence but so far, I absolutely love being a support worker because I'm loving being a part of that direct change. One of the things that Alex, the founder of Project 21 said is that people with Down's Syndrome can often be misunderstood and unchallenged because of their difficulties. However, all I see at Project 21 is a lovely group of young people confident enough to step out of their comfort zone and improve as the talented young performers that they are. As a young support worker, it's really nice to see people looking beyond the disability and encouraging young people to acquire vital skills for the future. It's an experience that I'll certainly never forget.
Be sure to watch Project 21's IGTV video on last week's boyband themed session. Link below!👇⬇️
Have you ever done ever done any volunteer work? What's the most memorable job you've ever had? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
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See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
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