Aaron started working for Printed by Us at the start of 2020. In this blog is a conversation between him and Chris, all about his journey and reflection on key moments through his recovery.
At Printed by Us I learnt how to screen print, what the production process is, gained an interest in technology, and began working in retail at various pop up shops and markets with my fellow participants. I initially found out about Printed by Us through being on Universal Credit. I was part of an employment scheme where they referred me to Reed, the recruitment agency, and they informed me about this job. I was employed for roughly four days per week for the first couple of months. Unfortunately, the pandemic then threw a spanner in the works for a while.
Although most people who work at Printed by Us have been referred from Archer Project, I was employed beforehand and referred afterwards by Roundabout, a youth homelessness charity. After working for Printed by Us I realised I related a lot to the people who had been supported by Archer Project, who have now benefited my life greatly. As well as my regular work in our store in Orchard Square as a retail assistant, I have now been given some additional responsibilities to fulfil in some of the more technical aspects of the social enterprise. I help maintain and regularly complete our digital stock taking on shopify. I am also responsible for the new barcoding system we have put in place, and it was my task to create and label every single item in our inventory with a unique and individual barcode, which was no small feat considering the size of our inventory! I also completed some Mailchimp analytical reports, to assist in growing the shop's online presence.
When I had my initial interview, I remember sitting at the table in our old offices on Joiner street. Terry said to me that they decided to bring Chris along to help me through the process. He said ‘We want you to know that you are not alone here’.
After hearing Chris' story and how similar it was to mine, it removed lots of the anxiety and shame I still carried from my past. I am a care leaver and was the victim of physical and sexual abuse for many years as a child. For someone to say I'm like you and I can see you, made me feel that I was in the right place with people who understood me. It felt like somewhere where I could finally address and work through my trauma with the help of Archer Project & Printed by Us.
I was bouncing around from agency to agency before my job here and I have a lot of physical and mental health issues as a legacy of my past. Despite all of my hardships, this supportive working environment has never held that against me or anyone else. They see me, support me and care about me and if I do happen to have a rare day when I can't get out of bed, I simply call in and let them know. When I come for my next shift, I am never worried about being judged or penalised, as I know this is a safe place for me.
Now that I have had the support to be able to start thinking about my future, I am starting a college course at northern college in July on coding and AI with apps. I have always been interested in technology and IT, and this has only grown by working here. Printed by Us are great at giving us work that suits our unique abilities and interests, as everyone has different strengths and weaknesses which we are encouraged to develop. This difference is part of the reason why our team works so well. It was natural I suppose to build upon my aptitude and enjoyment for a certain area and now it has led me down the path of further training and education, which I hope to apply to my future career down the line.
Co written by Chris Lynam, Aaron & Evie Concannon
