My name is Paul Savill I started working for bayc in February 2003, initially as a peer support worker for young disabled people. Over the many years I have worked for bayc my job role has changed significantly with my most recent role being centred on supporting young people to be at the heart of the decision making process within their organisations.

My journey into the profession of youth work has been an interesting one.Having worked in various factories and warehouses for a great many years upon leaving full-time education, I decided I needed to seek a much more rewarding career. After deciding that I wanted to become a youth worker (I will not bore you with the details, as to how I came to this decision) I started to undertake various volunteering roles to enable me to gain the experience in this line of work. As my voluntary work increased – so did the opportunities to actually start undertaking sessional youth work, just three hours a week to begin with – but at last I was getting paid for doing a job I enjoyed. I first applied for a job at bayc in late 2002, but I never even got to the interview stage, but as I am the kind of person who will never give up aspiring to make my dreams become reality, I consequently applied for several other jobs after this including yet another vacany at bayc. At the second time off asking, I was successful with my application and then managed to win through the interview stage, to finally land myself my first (substantial hours) job within the field of youth and community work.

Having now worked for bayc for over 4 ½ years, my time within this organisation is now limited, as I will be leaving at the end of August 2007 to undertake a new position in DEVON. Yes DEVON. I am currently in the process of selling my house as my family and I are in the process of a complete life change. Having stated several years ago that my dream would be to move to the coast, I have recent been successful in acquiring a new role as a – Participation youth worker – covering Torquay – Paignton and Brixham. My new office will be a five minute walk from the beach and my family and I have never been more excited than what we are right now.

My message to anybody reading this is: My experience has taught me that what ever you aspire to achieve in life, it can be achieved. It will never be easy and you can guarantee there will be many barriers to overcome along the way, but never stop believing. Don’t be one off those people who always say I was once going to do that! We all know people like that. As a young person once said to me “Its okay to be scared but don’t let that stop you”

Never has a truer word been spoken!!!!!!!!

Paul Savill