Case studies : Project coordinator: Helen

Helen gained a BA in Social Work from Glasgow Caledonian University, a course designed to fit around family commitments. She had previously trained in nursing and already gained experience in community work settings. Helen is the project coordinator for a community assets programme hosted by the project that she and her husband established in the local area six years ago...

Our parish church is the host organisation for a programme of asset-based community development funded by the recovered proceeds of crime. I work and live in the community and began working with the programme in March 2012.

The church has been active in the area for 53 years and has a long history of providing activities for young people. In 2006, in recognition that many local families were continuing to suffer from deprivation, my husband (the local minister) and I established a new project. The project currently works with 40 local families and provides support services to 70 children and young people, including a community café, a parent and toddler group, nurture groups and a women's group.

A typical day can involve taking part in the groups: key areas are early years and family health and wellbeing. Activities and discussion in the groups include training in first aid, cooking, mental health, fun days for kids, growing potatoes and the daily running of the café. We also work with individual members of the community, responding to needs and to situations sometimes involving risk to a person's wellbeing.

My new role provides a professional network of other programme workers in other communities. This involves attending meetings and sharing our findings and suggestions with each other. Over time, we hope to enable further development and explore the impact of increased social connections and participation in community-led activities.

As part of my current role I had around 200 conversations with members of the community in which we discussed individual and collective memories, skills and talents, focusing on capacities rather than deficits. A positive approach and willingness to get stuck in are definitely requirements for a job like this.

One of the most rewarding aspects of this job is affecting change in little ones' lives. The difficulty, however, lies in achieving a work/life balance.

There are benefits to working in the voluntary sector, such as the lack of bureaucratic interference; institutional red tape can often stand in the way of getting things done. Rather than interacting with the community and our neighbours in an authoritative role, we want to build opportunities in partnership with people. We have always sought to work like this, and in doing so life has been absolutely rich.