I don’t think school prepares you enough for the big bad world these days. Even when I was in my 30’s I still didn’t know what I wanted to do.

I used to be a bouncer in nightclubs. I was nightclub door staff and nightclub bar staff and then I’d worked in cafes. I also did about eight months as a dinner lady in a school.

The day before I went for my interview as a Better Start Community Connector, I got home from work from my shift as a dinner lady to find a friend of mine, all her children and all her things on my doorstep, homeless. She’d run away from an abusive relationship.

I thought straightaway. “I’ll go to my line manager”, cos I knew she was safeguard trained. Then I just put all my friend’s stuff in my house, and I took them back to the school.

When I got to my interview, one of the questions was around what I would do if I came across a family that was in a difficult situation. So, I was able to tell them what I’d done for my friend. I ended up getting a job and saving a family that day.

That’s the thing, all of us Community Connectors are also parents living in Blackpool. Whatever families and parents are struggling with, it’s highly likely we’ve been there too. So, we don’t force people to do anything. That’s not what we’re about. We’ll just them meet them where they need to be.

For example, trying to get hold of an NHS dentist in Blackpool is horrendous. Just like everywhere else I suppose. It’s becoming a national issue is teeth. Before Better Start, the help wasn’t there, but now it is. So, we’ll go away and do the research and then go back to parents with some options or answers