Written by Stacey Patterson, Head of Centre at Steps Phuket
We’re very excited to announce that Steps is expanding! We’ve now made our way down to Phuket. I’m Stacey, and I have been lucky enough to join the team and head up the Phuket branch. I am very excited to be a part of this great new adventure.
Steps Phuket is home to a training centre and a zero waste shop, with our partner coffee shop ‘Steps with Nakita’ due to open on site later this year.
We officially took our first steps in Phuket at the end of April. Our training centre was still under construction and so me and Jack, our trainee, made the bustling area of Phuket Town our temporary work site. This provided many opportunities for us to establish a good working relationship. There were many shops, coffee shops and restaurants for Jack to plan and practice everyday life skills. We visited the park for mindfulness and yoga sessions. Jack is an aspiring artist and animator and Phuket Town offered great opportunities to explore street art and small galleries, as well as to visit and speak to local artists.
At the beginning of June we made our move to the newly completed training centre. We met our colleague Khun Oh and our team of three began. The training centre was still a shell with the odd piece of furniture here and there, and it was up to us to organise and set up the space. This included refurbishing some old furniture and building some new which was a fantastic opportunity for Jack to practice and master some everyday life skills. He planned the process of dismantling, sanding and painting the old furniture. He also learnt to decipher the visual diagrams of build-it-yourself furniture with great success. We all pushed, pulled, carried and sweated until we had successfully set up the training centre.
Jack stacking shelves for the zero waste shop.
The next project has been to set up our ‘Zero-Waste’ shop. This included some more old furniture refurbishment coupled with learning about stock (products and storage containers), how to do stock take, and setting up the shop display shelves.
We have now had a month and a bit in the training centre. Jack has settled in and started his ASDAN courses. Steps has hosted a summer course during July Summer Holidays for some learners from across the island and therapy sessions on site have begun.
Our zero waste shop will be open from early September so please do come by. We are collecting secondhand furniture and workman’s tools that need a second chance at life so that we can complete the set-up of the zero waste shop – donations are welcome!
If you are interested in enrolling your child with us, or have any questions, please contact us on phuket@stepscommunity.com.
Our first few Steps in Phuket have been great and I am looking forward to seeing how this journey flourishes Step by Step.
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