Rebecca Allen started as a Receptionist at Golden Lane Housing (GLH) in August 2014. Fast forward nearly 9 years later, and she’s now an Administration Assistant in GLH’s in-house repairs team, Resolve Solutions.

10 years ago, Rebecca was struggling to gain employment as a person with a learning disability. She says that back then, people weren’t willing to support her and give her an opportunity. Despite the setbacks she faced, Rebecca has always been determined to progress her career and develop her skills.

Following working in several temporary roles, with support from Mencap, the UK’s leading learning disability charity, she found herself by chance starting in a Receptionist role at GLH. Having never been in an office role before, she had a lot to learn:

“I didn’t know where the role at GLH was going to take me. Back then, I struggled to concentrate and build relationships with people. Being rejected when I was younger made it really hard to have confidence in myself.”

Rebecca stuck with the Receptionist role, and with support from her manager and colleagues, realised that she could do the role and could progress in her career. She worked with her manager to come up with a plan to learn more about GLH and how different services areas and teams worked. Through this, she branched out from her Receptionist role, assisting different teams such as Housing and Income services to increase her knowledge and develop her skillset. GLH also helped Rebecca to access further support from Mencap to improve her CV writing and interview skills, to help her to prepare for applying for new roles.

In November 2022, Rebecca was successful in securing her current role as an Administration Assistant as part of GLH’s in-house repairs team, Resolve Solutions. She is also a member of the Social Committee, Colleague Engagement Committee and helps to support involved tenants. She is proof that with the right support, enthusiasm and determination, people with a learning disability can go on to have successful careers: “For me personally as somebody with a learning disability, mixing with people didn’t come naturally to me and I was shy about a lot of things. Now, people tell me how much more confident I am. My managers at GLH have been really supportive of me and my career progression.”

Rebecca enjoys sharing her experiences and her best advice for people who are nervous about making the next move in their career is: “Don’t give up, keep trying – you will get to where you want to be if you work hard.”

GLH is committed to supporting colleagues in both their work and with their health and wellbeing. Last year, GLH was awarded five Includability Committed Employer stars – Diversity and inclusion, sustainability, talent management, mental health, and wellbeing – through the Includability Programme in 2022. The stars recognise GLH’s commitment to inclusion factors including colleague wellbeing and diversity.  You can read more the stars this by clicking here.