Reviews

We are fortunate enough to work with amazing service users at Diversity House.
Please see some of our wonderful service users’ reviews below.

Patience Watson 

Service user at Diversity House  

I was referred to Diversity House (DH) by one of their volunteers 10 years ago. I started going to  DH regularly 3 years ago before Covid.  

When I first joined, I could not read and write in English. My communication skills were very  limited. I could not even answer a call. Because I do not live far from Diversity House, I used to  run from my house to DH so that they answer the phone for me. Diversity House staff used to  represent me at my children’s school. I was totally dependent on job centre and church. All this  demonstrates my level of dependency and low self-esteem. During Covid, DH gave me laptop to  learn on my own, but I could never use it. Then, DH enrolled me for their Digital Inclusion class. I  I feel proud of myself that I am learning and improving myself. This is some of the feedback from  my IT teacher at DH. 

“In my initial assessment of Patience’s skills, I could see that she has very limited  knowledge of computing in general, she was unfamiliar with the keyboard and its  functionality. During our first session, we went through the keyboard and the various  symbols and explained each element, as well, as basic hand placement. Once she felt  comfortable with this premise we then began to focus on learning the placement of the  various keys and practicing her typing. I set her up with an online tool that assessed words  per minute, accuracy, errors, and keys per second. Patience has now been attending my  sessions for several months and is making progress with her typing so I thought it would be  beneficial to finetune her motor skills with the mouse. I have created various exercises and  clicking activities for her to become more comfortable. There are about 20 activities for  each individual to complete and ideally should finish them within 10 minutes. Patience is  still trying to master her mouse skills and usually finishes around the 14-minute mark. We  will continue to work on this” (Sean, IT teacher at DH, April 2024). 

Because of the help of Diversity House, MY life improved in many ways. I passed life in the UK  test and got my British citizenship last year. Now, I grown so much, compared to my level when I  first joined DH, to represent myself at schools and speak up for my children. My self-esteem,  confidence and aspiration have grown. This is also shown in starting my own business which I  call “Favor Kitchen”. I am receiving orders regularly. Thanks again to DH ongoing support and  one to one mentoring, my business now is growing, and DH helped me to have a stall in the  marketplace to sell my food.  

Concerning education, I attended Kent Adult Education for functional skills, I have level 2 food  and hygiene certificate. I regularly attend ESOL class, sewing, Digital Inclusion at Diversity  House and other activities.  

My words can never describe how Diversity House helped me to change my life.

Jennifer Marsh  

Service user at Diversity House 

I joined Diversity House on Aril 2024. My first visit was challenging. I went with my support  worker from NHS. I was anxious, breathing fast, sweating, no eye contact, and does not talk  enough. I am autistic, has ADHD, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and low self-esteem. 

During my first visit, I felt that Diversity House staff were very professional, understanding and  gentle in dealing with me. This is the type of approach and attitude that encouraged me to come  next day by myself (no support worker). Since then, I attended Coffee Morning regularly. Coffee  Morning is a wellbeing space where we practice meditation, mindfulness, gratitude, thought  download, breathing exercise and other strategies that improves one’s wellbeing. I have been  advised by Dr. Zina Lehef (Life coach at DH) to practice meditation and breathing exercise daily  until it become a lifestyle because it is proved to be helping me.  

After some weeks of attending these classes and workshops, I realised and noticed that I now  smile more, mindful of my breathing, make new friends, socialise and engage in conversations  in a nice way. I try not to miss any of the sewing classes and workshops. The one-to-one  mentoring and coaching I get at diversity House helped me to improve my self-esteem and  confidence and I become very committed to the things I say I am doing.  

Remarkably, I started making initiatives and enrolling myself for different activities run at  Diversity House and outside it. I independently decided to participate in the business  workshops and Jewellery making workshop organised and delivered by Diversity House. 

Once again, my self-confidence improved and this is shown in trying new things for the first time  such as cycling, cooking classes. 

I do crochet as a hobby. DH trained me to make it a business. I enrolled in e-business  programme entitled “unlock your business potential: Antiques and more”. Now, I have eBay  account to sell my products. I can now call myself a self-employed and a business owner. This  is a huge achievement both at the economic and wellbeing level.  

All this huge improvement is thanks to Diversity House.

Gilvane  

I am 56 years old from Brazil. I am self-employed, sell antiques. I had different wellbeing issues  such as chronic stress, loneliness, and low self-esteem and therefore came to Diversity House  for help. During the assessment, I was assigned for coffee morning, social walks, cooking class,  cycling, wellbeing workshops including managing anxiety and working on one’s self-esteem. 

As a result of regularly attending these activities at DH, my self-confidence increased, and  socialisation improved. DH helped me with the process of having British Citizenship. I am a  successful businesswoman in antiques. I wanted to teach others and this is what I needed help  with. DH provided me one-to-one support and group coaching skills. When DH noticed that I  become ready for teaching, they supported me to run a business programme which proved to  be successful. I am now monitoring the sales progress of four of Diversity House service users.  Now I am teaching 4 more service users to have a business online. This impressive achievement  is due to the efforts of Diversity House Staff. They are all amazing.