Lily - My experience as a Leeds GATE trainee

When I first started working at GATE as Communications Trainee I was nervous because I have never worked before or done an interview. At the same time I was comfortable as I have been a member of Leeds GATE for a long time. I live on a site in Leeds with my family and know a lot of members so it is easy for me to talk to people and engage them as part of my role. Coming back to the GATE building to start work was weird as I used to go to the youth groups here years ago. At the time I enjoyed going as it gave me something to do as I never went to school. I was familiar with the building because a lot of the groups/celebrations I went to were there I also knew a lot of the staff because of that. 

I did expect it to be hard as I have never worked before or had any work experience but after a while I understood it better and got into the hang of things. Just remembering to log hours on my time sheet was a struggle at the start.  

My first year at GATE has been good and full of a lot of learning, like using apps that I have never used before like Canva. I now use it regularly to create flyers and timetables for the building and outreach, as well as graphics and videos. I also learned a lot about different social media that I never used before like Twitter. I also created a Leeds GATE Instagram who’s following is growing and I am working on creating a TikTok account to involve our young people in creating content from their point of view. Now I’ve even been back to the youth groups and helped support the youth workers. 

Doing training courses was something new for me. I’ve passed some training courses on digital inclusion and public health awareness. I’ve also done some online digital skills training. I’ve been part of sessions as part of our health work and spoke about the struggles Gypsy and Traveller people can face accessing GP surgeries and doctors. We talked to a lot of different health professionals with Mags our Communities Co- Ordinator and Ellie our CEO. 

 I am enjoying working here and as I’m going into my second year, I’m look forward to seeing what else I can learn.