Success Story
Gibrila
Gibrila registered onto the Neighbourhood Employment Gateway at our Middlesbrough branch and came in almost every day to search for employment through our central jobs hub.
One day he came in rather distressed as he was asked to leave the flat that he had been staying in since moving to Middlesbrough from London. We sat with Gibrila and he told me that the flat that he was staying in belonged to a friend and was above a shop. His friend had sold the business and the new owners wanted both the shop and flat empty that week. As this was a friend helping him out, he had no tenancy agreement so was now homeless.
I phoned our contact from the Wise Group, Tracey to find out if she could support Gibrila with his housing issues. Her only available appointment was Monday at 2.00pm. I advised Gibrila to go to the housing association not far from the branch to see if they could support him with temporary accommodation for the weekend. While we were trying to sort this out the story unfolded further Gibrila had gained leave to remain in the country but his wife had been refused, she had gone missing in London with the three children and Gibrila had been unable to find them, he decided to move to the North East to find a place to live and find employment so that he would have some money to go and look for his wife and family.
Gibrila managed to sleep on a sofa at a friend of a friend for the weekend as it was too late in the afternoon to put anything else in place for him. We called Gibrilla first thing on Monday morning asked how he was and reminded him of his appointment with Tracey. 2.00 o’clock came Gibrilla was early as usual and Tracey went into the meeting room with Gibrila to complete some paperwork. She came back upstairs after a short while a bit shaken and asked if we could talk somewhere private. Tracey informed me that she had been working with Gibrilas wife and three children for the last few months and that his wife now had leave to remain she could not disclose this information to Gibrila due to data protection, Tracey had got them a house and become really friendly with them taking the little boy to the hospital and they all called her Auntie.
Tracey supported Gibrila in finding accommodation and made a further appointment with him the next morning in our offices. Tracey informed Gibrila’s wife about this to see how she reacted. When she found out that her husband was in the area. Tracey gave me the information that Gibrila’s wife wanted to see him and that he was a wonderful farther, when Gibrila came in Gordon went down with Tracey for the meeting and to give Gibrila the news that his wife and family were here in Middlesbrough it was quite a tearful moment all round when he was told he was in shock.
From their meeting in the park the next day he came into branch to let us know and also to job search he brought his family into the branch last week to meet us along with two of his wife’s friend’s children and as you can see from the photos they are all so happy.