Worker Wednesday is a blog written by staff to introduce themselves. You can see the rest of the blogs here.
Hello. I am Andy and I’m the Drugs & Alcohol Development Officer here at LANDED.
I have been working with you people in various capacities for a very long time (trying hard here not to sound old). I started volunteering in my local youth club when I was fifteen because I had a couple of youth workers who saw potential in me and said that I could do what they did. I didn’t believe them and swore that I would never work with people like me. However, I did, and I loved it. It became clear that working with young people was a skill that I had. I also had other passions and career prospects. So, A degree in graphic design, careers in electronics, hospitality, retail, music (touring musician for 5 years), and many other odd jobs later, I somehow kept working with young people at the same time I was committed.
I finally decided to commit to youth work full-time, and instead of spreading my skill set thinly across many jobs, I was able to utilize them when working with young people. I have done all sorts of roles including general youth work, art, music, video editing, filmmaking, photography, sports, event organisation, education, financial education, street work, employability - Wow! That list goes on, but it’s verging on sounding made up. I realised when I got into training that I was able to work with people of all ages because of how my confidence had grown while working with young people. I have now worked with young people and adults across different localities and even different countries which has taken me on many an adventure! And this all came from a conversation one Wednesday night at Terminal One in Blantyre.
I came across Landed in my employability training role in my last job. I used to hire Landed to deliver all of their workshops a few times a year as I thought that the young people learned a lot from the sessions and learned valuable lessons that they would use in life. I was blown away by the way LANDED approached all of their training; not to condone or condemn but simply give the information for the young people to make up their own minds. This was so refreshing as it promoted healthy conversation and engagement in every group. Fast forward six years and now I am part of the team I admired so much.
Being the Drugs and Alcohol Development Officer is such a great role but very difficult too. There are so many aspects of both subjects to learn, and they change all the time. I am partial to going down some rabbit holes on YouTube, etc, so it suits me down to a T. Talking openly about alcohol and drugs can be uncomfortable for people of all ages but that’s what can lead to the best conversations. I have always been a believer in harm reduction and think of it as a privilege to be able to do this for a living.
It took me a long time to find myself and believe that I had skills that were worth anything to anyone. I now get to do what I am good at and at the same time have the opportunity to impact people's lives in a positive way.
Blog Written by Andy McKinnon, Drugs and Alcohol Development Officer, March 2024
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