Putting yourself first has often been seen as wrong in the past, however it’s becoming accepted that without a good focus on your own mental and physical wellbeing life can be very difficult. The team here at Newcastle Futures understand that looking for work can be stressful, but with the right support and balance with other things in life, people can make it to their desired destination and enjoy the journey in the process.

Our company vision is our belief that by “working in partnership we will enable people to do more, feel better and access more opportunities”. We work with many partners to bring together a package of support that fits you as we know you are unique and need a unique solution. If we don’t have the answer, we are confident we know someone who has. Sometimes our partners may not seem directly related to employment routes but, as we have said, getting the right balance especially during a unique journey to work is important. One of these partners is the Department of Health and we use their Five Steps to Wellbeing:

Your will find our team encourage the practice of these Five Steps which are:

• Connection – growing your contacts both socially and job wise

• Being as physically active as you can.

• Learning new skills – we can help you find out how,

• Give to others – including sharing what you know and being part of a bigger community of people looking to help each other, and

• Paying attention to the present moment – mindfulness and getting perhaps our support to putting things into perspective if they don’t go right first time.

These five steps might not seem related to supporting you into work, but we believe they are an important part of anyone’s journey, as you will not only be more attractive to employers and have more to share in your interviews, but importantly, you will feel better in the process. If you want to know more on these steps check out this page.

The Team themselves understand that to offer you the best service they can, they need to look after themselves too. They listen and understand the needs of their own physical and mental wellbeing. Over the last few years our company has worked with the Department of Health and their North East Better Health at Work Award Programme. This has encouraged us to be serious about staying mentally and physically well. It has meant that despite the pandemic we have kept our sickness down and brought us together as a team. We would highly recommend other companies check out the programme for themselves, if you want to know more go to Better Health At Work.

We have also been helped by a great amount of gratitude to each other, our clients for continuing to work with us and our partners who have kept their services going.

I think the only thing left to say, that alongside taking care of yourselves, feeling grateful we also understand that kindness in life is often overlooked. Especially the practice of self-kindness. Often, we are incredibly hard on ourselves when life doesn’t go the way we thought it would. We focus on what we should have done and our failings, rather than how far we have come and that the journey isn’t over, and with a little help and determination we will get there. With self-kindness, we give ourselves the same kindness and care we’d give to a good friend.

We hope that your journey is filled with kindness and that if you want that extra support, you will consider contacting the team here at Newcastle Futures as what matters to you, matters to us!

Have a great journey!

The Newcastle Futures Team!

For more about the support we offer, click here.