CLIP 384_0296

When did you meet louise, your story till now

05:18:00:02Yeah I first met Louise when she was probably about 11 or 12 and she came to a youth club that we were delivering for children in care across Medway. I remember Louise walking in and I seem to remember the evening quite well, she became part of the regular group and she would to attend week after week, at special events, she came away for a few residentials and that was over the course of 3 or 4 years until she became a young adult or a young woman..

05:18:33:18So the first thing is that its really good that we’ve been involved in Louise’s life since the age of 11 or 12 and now she is 21 or 22 so she’s an independent woman. It was mostly seeing her at the youth group but as things progressed, Louise had some difficulties, had some times where she needed more support so we was able to offer her some mentoring, some advocacy and able to do more because we had built that relationship with her through the groups and through youth activities and she trusted us and we had the same staff, the consistent relationship meant she could call on us for other things. I think that demonstrates the important of consistent adults in peoples lives. She went through some difficult times, we were there to support her through those things and she came through them very positively and now we can say Louise is a shining example of a young person that’s received support, that’s come through it, that’s made some very positive choices in her life, is living independently and making great progress in life and I call on her every now and again to help us and talk about our charity so she’s now paying us back with all the times we’ve helped her.

Would you say the charity is a hero to children

05:20:01:20I think the young lives foundation provides role models for children and young people and provides opportunities to lead and show young people other ways of living, to help them make choices, to help them make important decisions on their journeys into independence so there are times where I’d say we make some excellent achievements but its not down to YLF or down to the people we work with, staff or volunteers, a lot is about working together so I think sometimes the children are the real heroes because of the progress they make and choosing support as and when they need it

How has Louise developed since being involved with the programme

05:20:46:20Louise has come a long way, she would say herself that she could be quite obnoxious and rude to begin with and resist authority and resist any help. I remember the times she would give us a hard time but she always had an endearing nature where you knew you could give through and there was those

little moments where she would say thankyou or youd see a difference and I think she needed to go through that period in her life where she was a stroppy teenager to find where she is now and I think she’s made massive strides and is a shining example we can use. In fact louise is a perfect role model for some of the younger people we work with now coming through in terms of going through difficult times, showing huge amounts of resilience and making some very important decisions at difficult times and coming through it and being the great young lady she is now

Favorite part of your job

05:21:48:13

The favourite part of my job is undoubtedly forming relationships with young people, long term relationships and seeing them progress from childhood or early teenagers to adults and being part of that journey, its actually a privilege to share such an important part of someone’s life story with them.

Would you consider yourself a hero

05:22:17:10

I’d like to think that my input and involvement in young peoples lives in the earlier days of me working more in the front line made a difference. You don’t always know the difference you’re making, sometimes it takes two or three years after you’ve worked with someone and time to reflect that that happens. Now that I’m in this role I’d like to think my role is about allowing other people to make a difference in young peoples lives, I don’t do it quite so much myself but indirectly I do. I wouldn’t class myself as a hero, I class myself as a role model, a friend, someone who would listen and as a guide to young people and one of the things that reoffers me of that is when young people who we haven’t seen for two or three years suddenly contact you out of the blue to say thankyou and share their memories so it takes time for people to reflect and then come back and say do you know what you really helped me back then I don’t think I really said thankyou at the time so I’m going to say thankyou now. And that’s a really nice thing that happens every now and again

Would you consider Louise a hero

05:23:27:08

Louise is a certainly a really good example of a young person that’s achieved amongst all odds, has shown a huge amount of resilience and has come through some very difficult times and would be a perfect role model for young people as they grow up to look at. She is a really good example of what you can achieve in the most darkest days.

CLIP 384_0298_1

Tell us about YLF

05:35:46:10

The young lives foundation is an independent childrens charity working with young people and children across the county of kent. We’re unique because we work locally only within the kent geographic region. We’re unique because we use local peole because to support these children and we’re unique because of the difference services we provide, I think we’re the only charity that provides the range of services we do.

What is the mentoring programme

05:36:28:12

The young lives foundation mentoring programmes provide some extra help for young people who have chosen to receive it and that may include help at home, it may be to assist young people who are having some problems with their education at school or college or young people in the wider community who may need some additional support. The mentoring programmes work with young people to help them achieve goals that they’ve identified as they need support with. These could be about joining the local club and doing positive things in their community, could be about attending school or having a higher attainment or could be about making improvements within the family home and our mentors give the young people advice and guidance and travel with them to help them make the informed choices and achieve those goals

Would you say this charity is a hero to make children

05:37:20:02

I would say the young lives foundation supports young people it make a difference in their own lives and we are role models, advisers, supports and guides while young people do that. I think the real heroes are young people themselves for wanting to make a difference and improve their lives.

Would you consider yourself a hero

05:37:53:13

I would like to consider myself as having been a role model for young people, someone they can look up to but also someone who is very approachable who will listen non –judgmentally, advise and guide if they want it and try to help them achieve a difference in their own lives.

How has the charity progressed

05:39:00:09

I think the charity has made huge strides in the last couple of year and I think its had to because of the nature of the way the voluntary sector is heading, its much more competitive and we have to be more robust in terms of how we survive. So demand is increasing and there are more young people and families who want our support but at the same time funding is decreasing so there’s less money from local authorities for us to be able to do that so we have to find other ways of ensuring we can support children and young people so our new strategy of improving our marketing and fundraising and bringing in income from different ways ensure the charity will still be there to support young people even if local authority funding is not so readily available.

Why did you join the charity

05:40:07:03

I joined the charity a number of years ago now because I wanted to be part of something positive for young people and something I thought where young people were given a voice and could really progress and develop and I saw this charity as being gone that allows young people to do that. Having come from a background of working with young people in children’s homes and schools, I was at a stage where I wanted to actually really help them have their voices heard and shape their futures rather than have their futures shapes for them and this charity allows that to happen and I haven’t regretted that decision.