Victoria shares her journey towards independence and why she wants to become a social worker:

I’m Victoria and I’m 26 years old. I came to the UK from Nigeria and applied for refugee status because of my sexuality. I realised I couldn’t live an open life as a lesbian woman back home and both my parents passed away.

I initially was in a bad place mentally – I was depressed and suicidal. I stayed in temporary accommodation provided by the Home Office while I was asylum seeker, and when I was granted refugee status I was given 10 days’ notice to find a new place to live.

I was homeless for three weeks and would have been on the streets had I not had a friend who let me stay with her. I was recommended the help of Roundabout and they found a bed for me in supported accommodation. I didn’t want to be a burden on my friend so I was so glad when Roundabout helped me.

Roundabout made it possible for me to have my own place and a place to rest my head. It’s a blessing to have a place to call home and space to think about the future. When I was homeless I couldn’t think about the future.

Roundabout also helped me figure out my career options. I didn’t want to get any old job – I knew I had a passion for helping people. I know what it’s like to be depressed and anxious. I volunteer for a local charity and that’s when I learned some women in the area were afraid of social workers because they feared it meant their children were going to be taken away from them. I thought, why not go into social work? If there are more social workers with my skin colour perhaps these women will feel more comfortable.

My Employment and Skills Worker at Roundabout helped me apply for a ‘Step Up to Social Work’ course at Sheffield Hallam University. I have also applied for a learning disability nursing course at the same university. Thanks to EveryYouth’s Employability fund, my UCAS fees were covered and I got a laptop too!

Having this support made me feel like a burden had been lifted. Applying for university can be a lot of work but having someone there to help me do it…I felt really blessed and felt that I was in a more advantageous situation than my peers.

I’m now looking to move into council housing and Roundabout helped me move onto the priority list. Before the support of Roundabout, I felt like chains were holding me down. But now I’m able to back myself. I feel freer.

I’m quite contented now and it makes me happy to look back and see the progress I have made. It makes me optimistic about the future and no matter how hard things get, I’m going to overcome them. I really do want to become a social worker and I want to fulfil my passion of helping other people.

I would tell anybody experiencing homelessness to not give up. There are so many charities to help people so just keep pushing and it will come through for you.