Gregory’s Story: Turning Experience into Opportunity
This story highlights how lived experience can create meaningful opportunities for growth, learning and employment. It follows Gregory, who is training to become an Oliver McGowan Trainer with Keys, using his own experiences to help colleagues develop a deeper understanding of learning disabilities and autism. Through this opportunity, Gregory is building confidence, developing new skills and making a positive difference to others across the organisation.
Training Through Lived Experience
A Meaningful Employment Opportunity
Building Confidence and Skills
The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is designed to give people a better understanding of learning disabilities and autism, helping them to provide more informed and compassionate support. A key part of the training is hearing directly from people with lived experience, ensuring their voices, experiences and perspectives are at the heart of the learning.
As part of the programme, Experts by Experience work alongside trainers to share their own knowledge and experiences, helping bring the learning to life and giving colleagues the opportunity to understand things from a different perspective.
For Gregory, who lives at Eynesbury House, this has opened the door to an exciting new opportunity. He is currently training to become an Oliver McGowan Trainer with Keys, giving him the chance to use his own lived experience to help others learn and develop their understanding.
Gregory is friendly and sociable and enjoys connecting with people, he has strong communication skills, enjoys learning new things and is always willing to give something new a go. Training to become an Oliver McGowan Trainer gives him the opportunity to build on these strengths while using his own experiences in a way that can make a difference to others.
Our Learning & Development team is currently delivering the training across Keys and is working closely with people we support, including Gregory, to help prepare them to co-deliver sessions alongside our trainers.
For Gregory, this also means the opportunity to take on a paid role where he can share his experiences and knowledge with colleagues across Keys. It is a step he is proud of and one that is helping him continue to build his confidence, independence and sense of purpose.
As Gregory develops in his new role, he hopes to continue learning new skills and taking on new opportunities. With support from the team around him and Learning & Development, he can continue growing in confidence while using his experiences to make a meaningful difference.