Regan Nixon
Wellbeing Worker, Queens Cross Housing Association
Regan chose to go straight into work instead of further education. Read about how she was able to achieve her ambition of working in social care, within a housing association.
After leaving school, I wasn’t interested in going straight to university and worked in retail for a while. I wanted to get into social care but didn’t have any qualifications in social care or experience. Then I got a job doing shift work at Queens Cross Housing Association, working with young homeless people. This led to my current post as Wellbeing Worker in the Housing First for Young People team.
I’m one of a team of people providing housing support to young people aged 16 to 25 in a residential setting and in their own tenancies. I joined the team during the Covid pandemic, which was challenging as we were supporting young people whose mental health was declining. Coping with the more difficult parts of my job has been a good learning experience.
Trust, empathy and maintaining healthy boundaries are very important for what I’m doing. I think that being younger has helped me build up trusting relationships with the young people engaging with the service.
I’m now studying for social care qualifications and getting a lot from being in a job where I can help young people at a point in their lives when they really need it.