Danny and the Restart Scheme by Ingeus UK transcript 

Danny: I struggled with anxiety and depression. I was lost in my own life. I couldn't really help myself at that point, so I had to reach out. Amy was my Restart Advisor. We did a plan. She got to know me and everything, and really helped me engage in moving forward with my life. She was brilliant in terms of getting to know me, so all the mental health struggles that I had, even the living arrangements, bills that I was paying. As the name says, 'Restart'. It was restarting my life again.

Amy: Danny was referred to the Restart Scheme from JobSense Plus, and I supported him into self-employment as a personal trainer.

Danny: I'm a mental health personal trainer, so I help people with anxiety, with bipolar, with depression. As a strength and conditioning coach, I work with athletes in elite sports, and it's about building lifestyle habits back up.

Amy: Once Danny was in a good place to be able to start work, we then had to help him financially. We purchased his gym wear, he has a logo on that, and with self-employment support by referring him to Momentic.

Jan Melia: Momentic works with Ingeus to support participants on the Restart Scheme. If they identify somebody that is interested in self-employment, they refer those participants to one of our self-employment awareness sessions. Some of the work at the beginning was quite practical. By helping him to register for self-assessment, helping him to put a business plan together, we then started working a little bit more in-depth in the marketing and to generating new business and growing that business.

Danny: It was a pleasant experience. At first, I was very, very anxious. I was even terrified of walking through the door to see people. Once I got through the door and started to engage in conversations, it was really comfortable. It's probably one of the biggest things, if not the biggest thing I've done. I would recommend it big time. Get referred and do it, because it's one of the best things you'll ever do.