English Transgender woman, in a spot of bother

AmyCupcake

Hi, my name is Amy, (she/her pronouns) I am a 27yo unemployed uneducated neuroatypical English trans woman living in Spain, due to economic conditions caused by Brexit, COVID and breaking up with my long term partner, I may be forced to return to The Isles soon to hopefully avoid homelessness or at least move the homelessness to somewhere that speaks English , due to bad memories causing breakdowns when I visit, and conditional threats of violence from my father, I have no desire to return to Britain, and with the CTA, I have the option of coming to Ireland, my Irish friend here in Spain has recommended Galway

I am looking to move, rebuild my life, get a job, go back into high school level education, and just...restart

If anyone can provide resources for charities that can assist me (I have already emailed BeLonGTo), or more direct assistance, e.g. a job, housing, other I would be extremely grateful

Thank you for reading

P.S. Sorry for this reading so formally, it is one of my coping mechanisms when talking about difficult subjects

P.P.S One of the reasons beyond no qualifications that I am finding it insanely difficult to find work in Spain is that my ex basically treated me as his pet, I was well treated, but not given opportunities to grow, as such my Spanish language skills are dire

baby and crumble

Hi Amy,

You should try TENI (http://teni.ie) for more trans-specific information. BelongTo is focussed on youth LGBT+ (up to 23 years of age) so might not be appropriate for you.

Unfortunately, Covid has meant that a lot of organisations are restricted in the services they can offer at the moment. Teach Solais is a Galway based LGBT+ centre/ organisation however they're currently closed physical, but have some online drop-ins and phone support going - see https://www.amachlgbt.com for more details.

Re: jobs & work, as you said you're neuroatypical, do you want information on organisations that could specifically help you from that perspective?

AmyCupcake

Thank you for the links, btw, I said neuroatypical because much of the post was originally emailed to BeLonGTo and I mean autistic but NGOs and social workers sometimes get annoyed when I say it's self diagnosed, my proud parents were told I might be autistic over 20 years ago, but they never looked into it until many years later, and I never got any diagnosis, as an adult my life has never been stable enough to ask for a diagnosis or the few years when it was, the doctors don't speak English here, but yes, if you think they might be able to help me, I'd be interested in knowing about them

_Godot_

In terms of education, you could start with the Leaving Cert (it's like the A Levels) but you wouldn't have to do Irish, or something at a post leaving cert (plc) college, which is a popular route back into education. Each plc college might vary a bit on what they offer, but there are quite a few of them. People use them to get a job or go into a diploma or degree somewhere else.

EDIT: Here's one in Galway. http://galwaycc.ie/

imme

OP your post reads like it was put together by a professor. Well done.

You say that you want to go back to second level education. Did I read that correct.

I have never heard of anyone accessing second level education at your age.

_Godot_

There are people who sit the leaving cert at many different ages. I'm 38 and I'm doing a leaving cert course in a vtos centre, and hoping to sit it next June. But I think I get what you may mean, not being able to redo all of second level?

I'd still recommend a plc college.

AmyCupcake

imme wrote: »

OP your post reads like it was put together by a professor. Well done.

You say that you want to go back to second level education. Did I read that correct.

I have never heard of anyone accessing second level education at your age.

Thank you, I dropped out of schooling at age 14, all my education since then has been mostly wikipedia, my own research and political debating, I would like to get formal qualifications so I actually have something to put on my CV

Edit: my mediocre level of Spanish has also helped me a lot with my English level

Girly Gal

Good luck on getting your life back on track and getting some qualifications is a good first step. Have you considered online education courses?
Regarding work there's alot of multi national Medical device companies in Galway who are always hiring general operators, so, qualifications wouldn't be required, be a good short term option while you are studying, plus they are LGBT friendly.
Just a word of warning on moving to Galway, the weather here is generally not great, it rains alot and we don't get alot of sunshine it's generally cold, wet and windy for most of the year, so will be a big contrast to living in Spain.

L.Jenkins

AmyCupcake wrote: »

Thank you, I dropped out of schooling at age 14, all my education since then has been mostly wikipedia, my own research and political debating, I would like to get formal qualifications so I actually have something to put on my CV

Edit: my mediocre level of Spanish has also helped me a lot with my English level

I assume covid has put a hold on your plans to move. I would agree with your friends, Galway is the place to go. When you do arrive, I may be able to put you in touch with a few people who can point you to any local resources that may be of assistance. One of the girls in question is trans and lived in the UK for a time, so she'll have some insight.