THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP NETWORK

A blog by JJ Liggins

My work experience has been a blast with the NLN. I have met some amazing people and had some great conversations. I was already part of the NLN Steering Group, so I had a few familiar faces to speak to when I was there; that really helped me and I felt like one of the team, even though I was on work experience. The best part of my work experience was that I could do jobs to benefit the organisation as the NLN does amazing things working with people in the care experience community. It was a work experience like no other as it was different to other peoples because I wasn’t looked at like I was on work experience, I was treated like a colleague who does this for a living which made it so much more enjoyable. I got to be more involved and learn a lot of stuff from other people and contribute to things. 

The first day I was a bit nervous, but I was working with Gary, so I knew I would be fine. The first day me and Gary had a zoom meeting in the morning, that was a reoccurring thing throughout the week, I really enjoyed our morning blethers. Then on Monday Gary showed me my timetable for the week. I had a variety of tasks to do that would help me through the week e.g., writing up questions for people I had a meeting with later in the week. I got to see what went on behind the scenes of the NLN, which interested me a lot. I got to see how Gary and Lisa (NLN staff) planned their week and recap what had happened the week before. 

On Tuesday I was invited to come along to an NLN comms meeting. I had no idea what comms was before but during our morning blether Gary showed me some things they were going to talk about. The comms team were a great bunch of people. I was nervous because I’ve never met them before, but they were all welcoming and asked me questions about myself which was nice as I felt part of the team. I contributed a bit to the conversation here and there to try and help. After the meeting me and Gary had a chat about it, and I told him “I get it a bit more”. After lunch me and Gary did a video talking about participation, I really loved it as I had prepared some answers the night before and it pushed me out of my comfort zone when filming the video, but it was a one take wonder, so we were both pleased. Later on, I had a big meeting with Jo the CEO of Staf (Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum). I was a bit nervy, but I came prepared with some questions to ask her. Throughout my work experience week, I have met great people and Jo was definitely that. I was interested in what Staf do to help care experienced people and I learned a lot of what was going on after that chat with Jo and I was lucky enough to get asked a couple of questions myself from her about my work experience and how I was enjoying the Steering Group. 

On the Wednesday me and Gary had our usual morning blether about what was happening that day and recap on how I’d found the day before. My next meeting was with Lisa, another superstar that’s part of NLN. I knew Lisa from work experience that her and Gary support the Steering Group, so it was nice to speak to a familiar face. I had some questions prepared for Lisa about how she ended up working for NLN and why she loves her job. We had a great chat about random things as well as work stuff. Lisa also offered me a contract to work another six months with the Steering Group, which I was pleased about as I have loved it so far and I am eager along with others in the Steering Group to help make a difference within the care experienced community. Lisa also gave me some tips on how to make a poster on Canva as in our morning blether Gary asked me if I could do one for the NLN website launch. After the meeting with Lisa, I did a poster for the website and sent it off to Gary and he came back and said I had knocked it out of the park. I was very impressed with myself. For the rest of the day, I finished my other blog on leadership in sports and how it links with the NLN leadership qualities. 

On Thursday I realised that I really loved being part of the team and I had learned so much and the week had not even finished yet. In the morning me and Gary, as usual, had a morning blether about what was happening that day. I got the opportunity to meet another really inspirational person, Ross, from CYCJ. I had asked Gary before work experience to get a meeting with Ross because I was interested in the things he and CYCJ do, and I wanted to know more about it. Me, Ross, and Gary had a great chat about the stuff CYCJ do and I got asked a couple of questions myself which was nice. I got a lot of knowledge from Ross from that conversation. We both agreed there needs to be more youth centres around the country to occupy kids with something to do and keep them out of bother. 

On Friday me and Gary had a great conversation about the week, and I asked him some questions about how he got involved in the NLN and why he wanted to make a difference in the care experience community which I found interesting. Later on, I met Chris who does a brilliant job working with the Youth Just Us project and asked him some questions about what he does and what’s so great about working with people with care experience. 

Overall, my week couldn’t have gone better. Throughout the week I learned a lot of things like problem solving, time management, being organised and being prepared. As the week went on, I got to meet great people and get more of an insight into what’s being done to help people with care experience in Scotland. I take my hat off to them all as they do an amazing job with a great motive of wanting to make a difference.

I would like to say a big thank you to Gary who has done an amazing job of making my week enjoyable and helped me feel comfortable throughout the week but also Gary has helped me learn many things to take away from this experience.

I am gutted its now over. 

June 2023