Congratulations to Bill on his long service award!

Last week, Bill, who lives at our supported living service at Halls Drive in Coventry, received a long service award from the Lord Mayor of Coventry for 25 years working for Coventry City Council.

Bill currently works one day a week at Coombe Abbey Country Park, helping the park rangers with maintenance, mending fences, weeding and other jobs.

Service manager Emma said:

“He’s such an outdoorsy person so it really suits his personality and it’s such a huge part of his life – he just absolutely loves it. Unfortunately, he’s just had a fall and broken his ankle last week. He’s ok but it’s going to hit him a little bit to be missing work.”

Bill moved in to Halls Drive in 2013 and lives a very full life outside of work. He is very close to his sister, meeting her every Thursday and goes to various clubs throughout the week too. He’s also loves to travel.

Emma said “Bill is very independent and can do basic household tasks and look after himself, but we support him to help live his life the way he chooses through things like helping him with his timekeeping and reminders to do things.

“He’s not great with timekeeping, so for example, he may get out of bed quite early and think it’s time to go to work so we go in in the mornings and just let him know when it’s time to start getting ready, just little prompts to allow him to maintain the life that he wants.

“We’ll support with his shopping, writing his shopping list and getting him to store food in the right place. He just needs a bit of guidance really as he can be quite forgetful.

He’s got a really great sense of humour, he loves to crack jokes and tease you. He’s lovely. I asked Bill if he was proud of himself and his reply was ‘I suppose so, yeah’, which is typical, understated Bill.

Speaking at his Long Service Award ceremony, Bill’s sister, Kay said:

“We would like to thank all the staff at Coombe and Whitley Depot who have kindly supported Bill and made it possible for him to have such a wonderful working life. It has always been a major boost to Bill’s self-esteem and wellbeing that, with his learning difficulties, he could be in the world of work and we would like to recognise and thank the ‘powers that be’ that have enabled this.”