Today is Friday 17^th January 2025 and I have officially completed my first week at CANW! Everybody I have met so far has been exceptionally lovely and I’ve heard great things about other people I will meet further down the line. I feel so welcome already!

This week we have been working on:

• completing mandatory training (health and safety, data protection, cyber security, etc)
• setting up our laptops, emails, teams, etc
• learning more about CANW: what each team does and how young people refer into our service
• getting to grips with the online systems used here
• meeting various team members
• getting to know one another
• writing blogs!!

There has been a lot of information to take in, but that’s expected when starting a new job. We have been given lots of resources already that we can utilise when we start working with the young people. We even got a craft trolley each, filled with everything you can imagine (paint, glue, dolls, buttons, games)!

I am feeling really happy about my choice to join CANW and I believe I will be well supported here throughout my training. Everyone has been extremely welcoming and kind and I can’t wait to meet the rest of the wider team when the new office has been finalised and we’re able to move in! I am excited to start with university, but I am enjoying the calm now before the hard work begins!

Unsurprisingly, starting my new role as a Trainee CYWP at CANW came with a mix of excitement and apprehension. However, unlike others in my cohort, I had a unique differentiator in that I had already spent seven months as part of the CANW family! Since May 2024, I’ve worked as an Emotional Health and Wellbeing Practitioner at CANW, which made stepping into this new role feel like a natural progression rather than a leap into the unknown.

Familiar faces greeted me on my first induction day, instantly putting me at ease. The transition felt less daunting and more like the next step in a journey I had already begun.

We started the day by getting to know one another, breaking the ice and creating a warm, collaborative atmosphere. Abbie, our new team leader, then gave us an insightful overview of CANW and the course. As a current CANW employee, I found her insights into the university side of things particularly helpful in outlining what the next 12 months would entail and what we could expect.

Later in the day, Abbie surprised us with huge pink trolleys filled with an exciting array of resources! Inside were books, games, crafts, and more lolly sticks than I’d ever seen -everything we could possibly need to start us off.

After lunch, we had the pleasure of meeting Sue, the Head of Service. She dropped by to introduce herself and expand on the topics Abbie had covered earlier in the day. Having met Sue several times before, it was lovely to reconnect with a familiar face and hear some of her CANW-based stories.

To wrap up the day, Abbie provided a concise summary of everything we’d covered and answered any lingering questions we had. It was the perfect way to conclude what had been an incredibly informative first induction day. I left feeling motivated and excited for the journey ahead at CANW!

My first day started with a 2-hour commute as I wasn’t moving house until the following weekend. Moving and starting a new role all in the same week meant lots of stress and nerves!  The morning involved meeting and getting to know the three other Trainee CYWP’s and our manager Abbie. It was very relaxed, and everyone was lovely! After introductions, Abbie went through some information about CANW and the role and we were given lots of time to ask any questions. We were each given a bright pink trolley full of resources and games to use with children and young people! In the afternoon, we met the head of service, Sue, and chatted some more about life at CANW. That was the end of the first day!

The next day was spent working from home. This involved online training and an induction meeting with HR. On Wednesday we met in person again and spent some time with the CYWP’s from the 2024 cohort. It was really reassuring to chat to someone who has been through the training and ask questions about the university side of the role. We continued with online training and completed mini biographies about ourselves that we can share with young people when we start working with them. That was the first half of the first week completed!

The morning of a new beginning. It has been a long 3 months since I found out I had been successful in my interview at CANW but today is the day I am starting my new role as a trainee CYWP. I have a combination of feelings swirling around inside me as I drive to the office: excited, nervous, apprehensive but as soon as I enter the room I am instantly put at ease and feel confident to be myself.

I am one of four trainees and we are asked to introduce ourselves and share some information about our lives. This always makes me uncomfortable as I try and quickly think of interesting aspects of my life (I am just a normal person with a teenage daughter whose life is actually quite boring). After we become acquainted with each other we spend the day going through an induction power point learning all about CANW, we receive our laptops as well as each getting an exciting pink trolley containing lots of resources that we will be able to use in the future.

I leave the office feeling excited about the new opportunity in front of me. For the rest of the week my days are filled with an induction meeting with HR, familiarising myself with the software system, online training and meeting other members of the team. A positive first week.