I have been working as a Financial Inclusion Worker with Recovery Essentials Project for over a year now. I am soon leaving to relocate to my home town and start a new job.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Recovery Essentials, as it has given me the opportunity to continue working with the most vulnerable people in Edinburgh; those whose history has affected their adult lives through mental health and addiction problems, those who have sometimes considered suicide as a solution to their devastating situations, and those who are struggling against a tidal wave of financial issues- unmanageable debt, low income and poverty so severe that they need others to provide them with food. However, by the same token, I have witnessed such bravery, positivity, and compassion that this work continually restores my faith in human kindness and if I said the past year has been an emotional roller-coaster, I would be putting it lightly.
Fortunately, I have had the privilege of working alongside colleagues whose compassion and dedication has been second to none. I have worked in partnership with various drug & alcohol, mental health, and homelessness agencies whose ethos and practice have provided my clients, myself, and colleagues with a great amount of support, encouragement and empathy to help achieve goals. I am proud to have been part of my clients’ road to recovery by empowering their financial recovery. I have helped people go from homeless, starving and having to walk 4 miles each way to the job centre to gaining necessary welfare assistance, being housed, and eventually moving into paid employment. I have helped women and children suffering domestic abuse to live independently, and financially independently, from their abusive partners. I have helped people to become sequestrated and free themselves of the emotional and financial burden of unmanageable debt. I have been part of a necessary process to help people pick themselves off the ground, dust themselves off and re-start their lives.
I will miss this job, my clients and my colleagues very much. If only you could take a job with you! I wish the folks of the Recovery Essentials project the very best and continued success, but mostly I wish my clients a happier and healthier life free from financial struggle.
All the best,
Elaine Bowie
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