Taking Small Steps and Making a Big Difference: The Force of Nature that is Jan

Meet Jan

Jan is almost the last member of staff to be introduced via this Blog, and that’s partly because of the problem of pinning her down.  It’s not (just) that she’s been avoiding me; it’s that Jan is something of a whirlwind, always dashing from one appointment to another.  When I do finally get some time with her, she freely admits that she sometimes tries to squeeze too much into her busy diary: “It’s definitely a fault of mine.”

Jan works as part of the Step Forward team whose ultimate goal is to get women, particularly mothers, into work.   They are often starting very far from that point, so Jan explains that her focus is on helping the women to take steps in the right direction, however small those steps may seem to be.  “Even tiny breakthroughs make a difference,” she tells me.

Achieving those breakthroughs is often the result of Jan’s attitude to “thinking outside the box” – and sometimes even outside the Centre.  I ask her about the times I have seen her setting out through the front door with a client, both of them in running shoes and tracksuits.  “Sometimes I do the ‘Couch to 5K’ app with a woman to help build her confidence and deal with her anxiety,” she explains.  “We do a stage together and then they can carry on doing it between sessions.”  Jan says that the women really value the practical support she offers, seeing it as a refreshing change from the leaflets and fact sheets which might be the only help they have received from other organisations they have turned to.

Jan also often works with other members of the family.  “I love the diversity of my work, spending time with people ranging from 5 years old to nearly 70.”  She uses play sessions to help the whole family communicate better with each other: “a contented child means that mum has more time to work on herself,” she says. 

Jan describes her own childhood as “challenging.”  Growing up on a North London estate, she saw women stripped of their values and self-worth, and she knew that she wanted to help.  But her initial escape route was a career in embroidery, which she created and taught for 20 years.  During that time she had a family, did a Masters degree in History, and undertook a counselling course.  And she also gradually moved away from London, which she hated, towards the greener pastures and fresher air of Sussex.

A spell as a volunteer at Home-Start, the organisation which supports families with young children, turned into paid work with them, and from there Jan completed her journey to My Sisters’ House.  “I feel like I’m home now,” she tells me. 

Looking back, she clearly sees that tough upbringing on a council estate as part of the person she is today.  “I think it gave me a strong internal resilience.  And a desire to fight the stereotypes that come with that background (and that accent.)” 

It’s also given her a genuine interest in what makes people tick, and means that every woman she works with is treated as an individual.  “That’s what makes My Sisters’ House different from other organisations – we don’t just do the same things for everybody; everything we do is tailored to that particular client and their needs.”

All of which keeps the women engaged, and stops Jan from being bored – something she admits she is prone to, and which is demonstrated by her regular changes of hair colour.

But, luckily for My Sisters’ House, and all the families she works with, Jan is not planning to change her job any time soon.  Which is no great surprise – because who wouldn’t want to stay in a place she describes as “inspirational every day.”