My journey - young people's travel journey to independence

Holly was referred to Community Connecting by her college. During an annual review she expressed a desire to work on her self-confidence and access her local community.

For the first meeting Holly met with the community co-ordinator using the virtual meetings platform Microsoft Teams, due to Covid-19 pandemic. They discussed the service and how the travel training process works. Holly was happy to proceed and decided to register.

Holly wanted to continue via Teams meeting working together to complete the profiling paperwork and getting to know each other, ready to begin travel training.
She wanted to begin by travelling into her local town.

The first step was to find a bus route that suited Holly's needs. As soon as they were able to, travel training began.

On the first day Holly was nervous but focussed on what she wanted to achieve and over the next few weeks she learnt the route, asked for her ticket independently and knew where her bus stopped.

Holly's confidence grew and when she was ready, fading began. It was agreed that Holly would travel on the bus and her community co-ordinator would meet her when she got to her destination.

As part of the travel training process, different aspects are covered, including;

• 'What if' scenarios in case of problems
• Safe places to ask for help
• In Case of Emergency (I.C.E) cards
• Safe road crossings
• Personal safety

Holly is now travelling to her local town independently and has even taught members of her family the bus route she uses so they can get the bus to town.

Supported by Lindsey Neale
Community Connecting
August 2021

Holly said:

I didn't feel confident before, now I feel confident to get the bus