Johnny Irwin's Story
The Covid pandemic affected everyone, but few industries were hit quite like entertainment and sport.
Venues shut, gyms were barren and, crucially, workers were left either relying on furlough or rudderless.
Musician Johnny Irwin and staff at Rivals Gym felt this particularly deeply.
Thankfully, by engaging in the UK Government’s Kickstart programme, delivered by Routes To Work and supported by Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire (VANL) and its network of third sector employers, they, and others in North Lanarkshire, were able to grasp a new start coming out of the worst of the pandemic.
Indeed, they were just some of the success stories which came about after Routes To Work was confirmed as a Kickstart Gateway organisation for the third sector in December 2020.
Since the commencement of the programme in March 2021, introduced as a direct response to the pandemic, 12 third sector employers, who would have otherwise been unable to offer these opportunities, have created 78 vacancies for young people, bringing in a total of £364,880 into the sector with it.
Part of that cohort was Johnny (23) who lost not only his job and livelihood due to the disruption of Covid, but his passion and sense of direction.
Johnny, from Wishaw, is a multi-talented musician, able to turn his hand to just about anything, including guitar, keyboard and the saxophone.
He was working in events in the music industry, as well as performing in a band, but Covid quickly turned his life upside down.
Johnny found himself working in a warehouse in the latter part of 2020, feeling like he’d lost his spark.
He knew it wasn’t for him and signed on at his local Jobcentre in January 2021, thus leading to a referral to Routes To Work - where his luck started to turn.
Working with his caseworker, Keith McGhie, Johnny was presented as a candidate through Kickstart for the job of his dreams which, to his delight, he was offered.
Joining music charity Reeltime Music as a tutor - delivering workshops to children, those with additional support needs and other groups in the community - Johnny found his love for music and purpose again.
Of Johnny’s journey, Keith said:
“Johnny’s love of music came from his dad.
“He was a good musician and I knew how much he wanted to get into music as this was his passion. I wanted to help him achieve his dream job.
“Johnny has a lovely nature and I could tell he could fit into any team and was so pleased when he was offered the position at Reeltime.”
Also working alongside RTW Employability Support Worker, Johnny Walker,
Johnny developed his skills in every way.
“They’re brilliant because a lot of the time when you’re looking for work people are just like: ‘There’s a job, that’s what you need to do’.
“But with Routes To Work they ask what you want to do, what you care about, what’s your passion and they try to accommodate jobs in that sector you want to work in.
“I was working for a company in their warehouse and it was brutal.
“I was working in music before and then, going to do warehouse work, it was totally different and messed up with my head and I just was not enjoying it.
“I had to leave it and then one of my pals said to me to come down to Routes To Work and see if they could find me something and that’s how I found the Reeltime post.
“I started out on a six-month contract with Reeltime Music and, thankfully, at the end of it I got kept on and I’ve now been here a year.
“It gave me purpose to do something that I love doing and a bit of routine as well, which is always good.
“As soon as I could crawl, I crawled over to a guitar and was strumming it, so it was always going to be music for me.”
Speaking of his journey with Routes To Work, Johnny said:
Johnny performed so well, he was kept on at the Motherwell-based charity.
His manager, Ryan Currie, has seen a huge change in Johnny and is delighted they were able to partner with Routes To Work to get his talents in the door.
“The interviews showed that Johnny had really good social skills and he could play a few instruments.
“Where we sort of found out about his character was when he started working in our workshops with young people and they responded really, really well to him.
“If it wasn’t for the way that Routes To Work approached that, I don’t know if we would’ve moved forward in trying to offer opportunities to young people.”
Ryan Currie, Reeltime Music
