Dan's Story

Before working for Coin Street, I spent 8 years at a small charity working with vulnerable young people. A role then came up for the job as a Youth and Community Worker with the Youth and Community Programmes team and that’s how I ended up at Coin Street.  

That was back in 2013, I’ve now been here 11 years; time has flown by. When I started, I don’t think I was fully aware of everything Coin Street did, like most people, because the organisation offers so much.  

Upon joining, I wanted to push myself and work in a community-based organisation, with a variety of people, of all ages.  

I wanted to work in London as well, not the suburbs (like I had previously), trying to understand the issues people faced in the city.  

To be honest, I found it quite tricky to begin with. I was used to referral-based work where all the people we interacted with were recommended to us. In my new role, I was interacting and involving the community, actively going out and encouraging people to use our services.  

With a community as big as ours it takes a while to get to know the community figures and who to contact to encourage people to get involved. However, that changed with time.  

With the longevity that I have been here now, I walk down the street near Coin Street, and I know young people, parents, seniors, and those who have been part of our organisation for the whole time I’ve been here, and longer!  

The community is always growing and evolving, which means we have a bigger pool of people to engage.  

For me, just the whole concept of Coin Street is brilliant. I like working with different teams and professionals across the organisation who can help put more power and expertise behind the work we do. 

Another real benefit I’ve found from Coin Street is getting that freedom to instigate new schemes and projects. For example, we’re doing the Duke of Edinburgh with a group of young people, something I’m very passionate about.  

I like the idea of taking children on an adventure and having them experience things that they haven’t before. I think the young people value this. 

We’ve fostered an atmosphere for the young people centred around trying things, without pressure, to encourage them to enjoy and learn.  

Just recently, a young person who used to be part of our holiday camps when he was younger ran up to me and asked how he could volunteer for future camps. That makes me proud. 

From Coin Street’s openness to new ideas, we were also able to set up our popular coffee morning and youth club, which were both struggling with numbers. I put the ideas together to move Youth Night to Colombo and use the sports facilities to engage more young people.  

With Youth Night at Colombo the numbers began to grow, especially with young people from the Peabody estate next to us. We created a Youth Gym and recruited coaches to help get young people in on a Friday night.  

For seniors in the community, when I started, our main point of contact with them was through our senior’s party every Christmas. Through the years we added more to this evening to create something they could really look forward too.  

After a while, we realised that this one event for seniors wasn’t enough, so we set up coffee morning, which has now been running 5/6 years.  

I think that the Youth and Community team have done a really good job at keeping a natural family feel when we interact with people. It’s a great group of people who really want to work and help people in the local area.  

‘There’s a different way to do it’ was always the motto and I think we follow this well. 

I think you’d find it hard to find an organisation which has so many touchpoints with different sectors of the community.  

If Coin Street went tomorrow, I can imagine there would be a hole in many people’s lifestyles and routines.  

In the time I’ve been here, some members of our community have passed away and that puts into context what we have provided for people in their lifetime, and that can be a nice thing to think about, despite the sadness of their passing.  

It makes you feel good knowing what you have offered them personally and as an organisation. Experiences we’ve provided that they may not have had otherwise.