“I was basically looking at a future of homelessness and unemployment.  A place in a Keyhouse hostel kept me off the streets, and now a job in their offices is keeping me off the dole.”

 Gavin Askew, former service-user turned Keyhouse Receptionist

I had difficulties at home when I was 20, and at one point there was a good chance I’d be made homeless.  I was lucky really, because a friend of mine was already living in a Keyhouse hostel in Keighley, and she and the Keyhouse staff managed to sort me out with a place in the same hostel.  From there, me and my friend moved into a shared house managed by Keyhouse, and that situation lasted for around a year altogether. 

The Keyhouse people were great: they gave me all the support I needed to find my feet and settle in Keighley, otherwise I’d have ended up on the streets somewhere else. 

For a while I worked at a mobile phone shop in Keighley and lived at a flat provided by Incommunities in Shipley.  After about a year, all the shop staff were made redundant in one day.  It came as a total shock really, and it felt like a big step backwards.

After a couple of years of doing courses and programmes I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere.  Every vacancy had hundreds of people chasing it, and I never managed to land myself another job.    Eventually I did find work though. Things got easier when the Future Jobs Fund was set up, and I applied for a position I’d seen at Keyhouse.  I thought my chances were slim because I’d been one of their service users, but it didn’t seem to matter at all and I was offered the job. 

Today, I’m really happy here at Keyhouse and the work is very rewarding for me.  I think it’s especially rewarding because of my background: I can bring something extra to the job because I’ve been there myself, and I know the problems first hand.  I sat with a woman who came in just the other day: she had her belongings with her and she was very anxious, but after ten minutes of talking to her and sharing a bit of my own experience, she felt reassured and more positive.  I know exactly how she felt, and that’s why job satisfaction doesn’t get any better than that for me. 

Gavin Askew