From volunteer to Doctorate degree — Lauren’s story

My name is Lauren Huff and I am currently the Deputy Scheme Co-ordinator at Cool Connections, the Accuro youth club in Harlow.

I first started at Accuro in 2014 as a volunteer at Loughton Youth Group, having heard about Accuro through a family friend. Following this I worked as a Community Support Worker on the holiday scheme 2015-2018. I absolutely loved my time working at Accuro and felt like the wonderful young people and staff really helped bring me out of my shell.

In part inspired by my work with Accuro, I went on to complete an undergraduate degree in Psychology. As part of this I had the opportunity to study autism in greater depth, and to contribute to research projects related to better understanding how to support autistic people.

After graduating I left Accuro to work in mental health, and since 2018 I have worked in various roles offering psychological support to children, young people and adults. The skills in communication, team working and creativity I have had the opportunity to develop at Accuro have hugely contributed to my overall career progression, and ultimately working for Accuro has helped shape me into a more open-minded, flexible and compassionate person.

I currently work as an Assistant Psychologist with adults with eating disorders, which I very much enjoy, but I missed Accuro and I was very grateful to re-join in April 2022 as Deputy Co-ordinator for Cool Connections. I really value being able to get to know the young people at the club, as well as being part of a great team offering our service users a safe space to explore, build friendships and have fun. I have loved every minute of being back!

It has been a goal of mine for a long time to become a Clinical Psychologist, and my experience working with Accuro has enhanced my passion for this.  Although I am sad to be leaving Accuro once more, I am doing so to start the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training programme. I am thankful to the wonderful service users and staff at Accuro who have helped shape who I am both personally and professionally.

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