International Women’s Day 2026: Give To Gain – YZ’s Story

YZ has chosen for her name to be obscured due to privacy reasons.

This International Women’s Day, the theme is “Give to Gain”- and to celebrate, we’d like to speak about how Hope, a female advisor at the Growth Company was able to creatively support a female service user back into work, through increasing her confidence. This is YZ’s story.

YZ joined the Growth Company’s service, hoping for a receptionist or admin role, but carried significant anxiety after a traumatic experience of workplace bullying. Even discussing work preparation in appointments triggered intense anxiety for her - she became overwhelmed, flustered, and struggled to stay grounded whenever the topic of starting work came up.

Then she met Hope- her advisor at the Growth Company, who supported YZ through CVs writing, applications, and interview practice, and when early interviews didn’t go well due to anxiety, she validated YZ’s feelings and helped her see that her nerves came from genuinely caring about the opportunities.

Eventually, through a lot of her own hard work, YZ was offered an admin role in a medical practice, a huge achievement. But preparing to start the job brought her anxiety back to the surface, and traditional appointments became too overwhelming.

Recognising this, Hope thought creatively. Instead of continuing work‑prep conversations in a formal setting, she took YZ shopping for clothes for her new role. In this calmer, more informal environment, YZ relaxed a little more, talked honestly about her worries, and began to imagine herself succeeding in the job. Hope also gently introduced routine‑building strategies to help her prepare for the transition into work.

This personalised, compassionate approach helped YZ feel grounded, capable, and ready. She started her new role the following week and she is now thriving! Congratulations, YZ!

We hope this story inspired you like it did for YZ- for help finding work local to you, we can help you to find local vacancies- for job support, we can help you to find a local service that can help you like how YZ was helped. Happy International Women’s Day!