My Life Works has you at its centre. We’re not just a day service; the first time we meet we will talk about your aspirations, plan and set ambitious goals for you to achieve in your time with us, and continually review with you and your loved one how your journey with My Life Works is progressing. Finally, we want to be able to support you in your life after your placement at My Life Works, referring you on to other programmes and services that best meet your new-found skills, confidence and enthusiasms.  

Your first day 

My Life Works is part of My Life, a groundbreaking charity with person-centred support at its heart. We will sit down with you - and your family if necessary and appropriate - to talk through the reason you’ve come to My Life Works in the first place, what you’d like to do and achieve in your time with us and most importantly discuss, agree and document the support My Life Works will provide to achieve these goals.  

This programme of support uses PATH (Planning Alternative Tomorrows With Hope), a highly-regarded tool that works out the step-by-step actions that need to be taken in order for an achievable goal or dream for the future to be achieved. It has a very clear structure and commits people and organisations to tasks in a given timescale.  

Your first week 

We want you to get cracking with all the exciting work-based experiences My Life Works can offer - but we also want to make sure they meet your aspirations and offer real opportunities to develop confidence and skills. Underpinning each session and individual are a number of review documents which continually assess how your aspirations are being met. We use the “4+1” method in these reviews, which focuses on four main questions: 

• What have you tried? 
• What have you learned? 
• What are you pleased about?  
• What are you concerned about?  

The answers to these questions lead to the ‘plus 1′ question – based on what we know, what should we do next? We will then refine the plan for your time with My Life Works - if necessary - and once again document and ensure everyone is working towards the same goal.  

Your first months 

As you continue your journey with My Life Works, with our continuous review and support process, we’ll be able to build a stronger, deeper picture of what works for you and how we can meet your aspirations. Everyone who comes to My Life Works has a profile which tracks everything from achievements to feelings about the future; a suite of person-centred documents to support your My Life journey. Your journey after a few months may be very different to how it began but that isn’t a problem. In fact it’s a great benefit of person-centred planning; it adapts and evolves to suit your changing needs.  

Your future 

We want to equip you with the skills and confidence to contribute to your community in any number of ways. We will of course use our well-respected position as a local charity to make connections with business which will support you to experience life beyond My Life.  

We will also give you support and advice on how to interact with other services that could also help support your ambitions. That could mean referrals to the Supported Employment Service or engagement with Council-led programmes such as Immerse and Embed, and Community Unity (potentially need more info here). The key is that your time at My Life Works ends with you equipped to take the next steps in your exciting future.