JACK

Hi, my name is Jack and I live on my own, with support, in a small village. I moved here in 2009. My family lives nearby, so we see quite a lot of each other.

Earlier this year (2012) I completed my John Muir Award. To achieve this I had to discover a wild place, explore its wilderness, conserve a wild place and share my experience. I chose the Bolton to Gifford walk and recorded it through all the seasons in a big scrap book, using photos, words, plants and other things I collected. Some of the things I collected from my wild place I stuck on a scrap map.

This included plants, flowers, pheasant feathers, wool from a sheep. I also kept a diary of my weekly, sometimes twice weekly walks. To conserve the area, I arranged for a bench to be installed by the side of the river so I and others could have a rest and enjoy the view. To share my experience I organised a walk to the bench and had a picnic with my family and friends and showed them my scrap books, one for each season. A lady from the John Muir Awards presented me with a certificate there and the East Lothian Courier ran a small article on how we can all make a difference to ou communities. I’m now working on the John Muir Explorer Award.

CAMERON

Cameron is a young man of 23 who has aspirations to be a DJ, preferably in Spain. In the meantime, and closer to home, Cameron – a dog lover - wants a job as a dog walker, and is waiting for the start of a trial with a local dog-walking service. Over the past six year Cameron has progressed from constant support to spending much of each day on his own, and is now looking forward eagerly to living independently. With increasing confidence

Cameron budgets and manages his money. He deals with day to day banking and spending, paying bills and ordering things on-line. He keeps in touch with friends and his support service by email, twitter and text. The support staff, who have been close to Cameron for several years, speak of his growing maturity, evidenced by his ability to deal calmly and competently with stressful situations (like accidently locking himself out of his flat). As Cameron gets used to spending longer and longer periods on his own he uses his time to explore and get to know the city. Recently his interests have shifted from stock-car racing (“too expensive”) to wrestling, an interest he shares with his dad.