“I have made all sorts of big life-changing decisions whilst I have been on the course and I put alot of words into actions. The course has given me inner strength and a clearer sense of direction in my life.”

The core of My Time’s early work was to develop an educational programme that could meet the needs of people in the local area who, for a variety of reasons, face barriers to their personal development - including problems with depression and anxiety. The concept was to create a way for people to explore their potential and their natural skills, investigate their options, gain effective advice and guidance, and progress onto learning opportunities in the local area.

In the development stages My Time worked in partnership with West Midlands Churches Regional Forum and St. Peter’s Saltley Trust, in producing two research papers. The first paper titled “Going with the grain – The balance between policy, community and individual needs” was short-listed in the UK Learning and Skills Development Agency National Research Awards 2002. In 2003 a paper titled “Widening and increasing participation of hard to reach learners through the provision at the interface of education and primary health care”, was highly commended and received an award from the LSDA.

“I've learnt I'm not too old to start in education again. Future learning is something that I must continue to do”.

Participants have gone on to employment, and to further and higher education. Some have radically changed their lives by tackling issues such as domestic violence and made a completely new start, others have been able to find a direction and focus on achieving their goals. All participants received advice, guidance and information that networked them to support services in their area.

My Time is a transferable method that can be used in any community with individuals who have a desire to support each other. In doing this, it creates a ripple and self-generating effect. Based in Birmingham, My Time delivers courses throughout the West Midlands. My Time’s programme has been developed and refined through work on projects with partners across Europe and in the Third World.

My Time has expanded its services to encompass one-to-one counselling in a variety of approaches. We now provide CBT style counselling to GPs across Birmingham and the West Midlands. While still delivering our programmes we have developed our clinical services and have established an Action Resource Centre for people that are suffering from depression and require sound advice. The buck stops with us, no more referals, we will try as best we can to help the individual takes those first steps forward.