I managed care homes for people with learning disabilities, mental health needs and people who displayed challenging behaviour. I had been doing it for seven years and was a support worker for an additional four years prior to this. I had wanted a new challenge for some time, particularly looking for promotion within the same sector. This opportunity didn’t come, and the pandemic raised the pressure of the job role even further. Having to be legally accountable for the health and wellbeing of vulnerable people, the pressures became more and more difficult for me to manage. I resigned my role only to go on to another similar role. This second shot showed me that I needed to move onto something different.
I only had an idea of staying in health and social care because it was all that I knew, and being on a half-decent salary with two young children, I was fearful of giving that up. I had never previously had difficulty with my mental health and always felt that this was something other people had difficulty with.
When invited to come onto the Rebel School course, I really wanted to revisit a wish that I had many years ago, when I really wanted to be involved in a role that would enable people to access and increase their participation in sport and exercise.
Gareth completed the Rebel course and left with a plan.
I am now starting a business creating a video and blog about my local gym, meeting people who run and use it, and discussing the positive aspects. My larger wish would be that I could provide similar services to other local authorities in the area and potentially further afield.
Four years later, that business, Kino Sport, is well established.
A lot of the free work that I was doing led to paid work. Kino Sport has been going for well over four years now. Projects are going consistently. I’m still very much working alongside the third sector. I’m a director of a community basketball club and a trustee of the local community centre. These are all offshoots from the work that I’ve been doing as a community videographer. I’ve met all of these people, and I’ve been involved a lot more within my own community through that.”
He also holds a part-time role as a social researcher with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and has completed major projects with Durham University.
The biggest thing for me is just to be very careful with the finances, and not get myself in debt, or not push myself beyond my limits. We try little mini experiments, see what works and see what doesn’t, and then develop those things. The fact that I’m still here, four and a half years later, doing what I love and still pushing forward with it is very much from those first few lessons I learned in those two weeks back in 2022.
It’s a no-brainer. If a Rebel course is available, you should do your damnedest to get on it. It’s an incredible resource and a fun time. There was very little business talk; it was done in language that is understandable to anybody. It was genuinely worth thousands of pounds, and I was able to access it for free.
