FJF Testimonials

cck team fjf davidFrom: David
Date: Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 11:17 PM
Subject: Future Jobs Fund feedback

I found the work I got through the the FJF encouraging and supportive.

At CCK, I was able to develop my programming and IT skills in areas that I hadn't before, and which were useful to CCK. I thus acquired a more rounded set of programming and IT skills, and also developed previously dormant skills in time management and remote working.

While it is great to have flexible organisations, CCK takes it one step further and so assigning work, monitoring and reporting is a potential nightmare! I had initially been sceptical about working from home, but with support and a useful guide to successful home working for CCK employees, I came to find it manageable. It's still not a solution I prefer, but the ability to do it at all makes me more flexible as a candidate for employment.

Just the discipline of doing 25 hours a week was very useful, as I had been finding myself adrift with no regular work to do.

On a personal note, it was good to find myself working for CCK, an organisation I had experience of having visited the café in Endell Street several times while it still existed. I was pleased to be working for people with such an obvious regard for the kink community; a community that includes me and many of my friends.

That sense of community also manifested itself in the workplace, with a genuine feeling that the management at CCK cared about the welfare of the workers. This was especially welcome as they'd suddenly found their workforce multiplied severalfold, and could easily have become overwhelmed and remote. Instead, we had a clear and efficient induction process, and decisions on how best to manage the sudden increase in staff (and the large quantity of working from home that that implied) were made in consultation with us, the new intake.

I have emerged from the process a happier, more confident person with an improved set of skills and a better idea of how to manage my time. I'm very grateful for the opportunities that the FJF has allowed me.

cck team fjf wills"Coffee, Cake & Kink is an important social enterprise with an unique place in British industriousness".

Wills

I could not have created this definitive sentence without the support the FJF programme gave to CCK during the period of the last Government. I believe the selection of CCK for this programme showed particular daring and wisdom. i know that the company continues to need help and support which may be difficult to get in the current climate. What is needed is a continued willingness on the part of Government to serve all kinds and levels of society.

 

cck team fjf alisonFrom: Alison
Date: Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 8:04 PM
Subject: Thank you!

Dear Heather and Michelle,

I am Alison and have recently finished an FJF program with Coffee Cake and Kink. I would like to thank you for all your input that helped to run the FJF, purely to help unemployed people like myself get into work.

Heather - I really enjoyed the 'Measuring the impact' workshop you ran earlier in the year, which I attended with Sonia, and the content of which will be useful to know while at my current job. I don't think I knew the difference between outputs and outcomes before! I have checked back to the website to see if there were any other workshops like these; it would be great to attend again if there were any more. Glad that I was encouraged to go as part of my role at CCK!

I am excited to tell you that 2 weeks after leaving Coffee Cake and Kink, I secured employment in a role of my expertise with Mapalim Apprenticeships; another organisation that strives to tackle unemployment. It's great being able to use my new skills to help young people realise their potential.

Also in FJF Team