Jo Hinchliffe, acting project coordinator of Jiwsi, fpa

Jo Hinchliffe recalls how one teenage girl who attended his sessions was later inappropriately touched while in a cab on the way to school. Remembering Jo’s advice, she spoke out straight away.

“She said ‘I did what Jo told me and told the taxi driver no,’” recalls Hinchliffe, acting project coordinator of Jiwsi, a sex and relationships education (SRE) project for vulnerable young people.

Jiwsi works with young people from across six counties in North Wales who otherwise wouldn’t have SRE, such as those with learning or physical disabilities, the homeless and pupils excluded from school. Hinchliffe’s time is split between delivering courses and coordinating and evaluating the work of the team’s two project officers.

He joined the project after a string of jobs in theatre in education, youth work and sexual health before joining Jiwsi just over four years ago as a project officer.

In his new role, he also represents the project at national conferences, attends local multi-agency meetings and trains professionals.

The best thing about the job, says Hinchliffe, is the range of young people he works with. “This can range from those living in rural areas and not attending school to teenagers with autism,” he says.

But the job has its challenges, primarily uncertainty over funding, which means that most staff work on fixed-term contracts.

Hinchliffe has just completed a book of activities as part of the project and, in the future, he’d like to write more about the subject and develop training for other professionals. “It’s the career path of choice for a lot of people in this type of job,” he says. “Young people start to see them as being old and unhip, so it’s time move on.”