David from our Eccles branch after a time of being out of work has recently landed a full time engineering job! “While I was out of work, I didn’t want prospective employers to read my CV and think I was lazy and I wanted to keep in touch with a good work routine. Rather than stagnate or just stay at home, it kept me engaged and lifted my morale. I hadn’t anticipated it, but it was such a good way of filling my time. I quite enjoyed it and was about far more than retail sales or stocking shelves.” Congratulations David and good luck with this new venture!

Luke has been a Freedom Volunteer at Mustard Tree for about 6 months now, working with our facilities team through the Big Rebuild when we were across two sites! He absolutely rose to the challenge. Now we’re delighted to say Luke is moving on from Mustard Tree to once again live independently. He said “After my time at Mustard Tree, I’m leaving feeling so much more confident and able to cope on my own again. I’m able to cope with situations that would have completely stressed me out a year or so ago. It’s opened up doors for me. Mustard Tree has been an amazing springboard to help me feel I can move on, be a ‘grown up’ and rise to the challenge of independent living”.

Ruth is one of our wonderful Freedom Volunteers. She joined us on our Freedom Project a few months ago in our retail team on our charity shop floor helping customers. She is also studying a Business Administration course at The Manchester College. As part of her course, she had to organise and run an event to support an organisation…and luckily enough she chose us! “I presented to my class beforehand to explain about the charity and to advertise the event. I’m so happy it raised £85 and it was so great to have everyone’s support. I just wanted people to know more about this amazing place. I’m now writing my final reports for the end of my course and hope it will help me moving into future work”.

Kushwant and Donna have both got placements at Marks and Spencers, through our partnership with Business in the Community. As both ladies are part of our kitchen team, preparing and serving food for around 70 staff and volunteers every day, we hope they enjoy their opportunity to gain even more skills in customer service, retail and business.

Paul Owen – congratulations to Paul as he will be starting his new role as Warehouse Manager. Paul came to us in February and joined our warehouse team. In just five months, he has managed to get his drivers licence back and now has been successful in applying for our Warehouse Supervisor role at Mustard Tree! We always talk about opportunity for people and therefore we think we have to lead the pack! He will be starting from Monday and we wish him the very best of luck.

Tony Thornton got his dream job back! After a period of redundancy after his store closed down he has been re-employed by B&Q! He also found out this information on his birthday, so well done Tony. He has been a brilliant member of our warehouse team – thankyou for all your hard work Tony!