Neil Obbard Writes…

Cost-of-living has been a problem. People are more needy. I get knocks on the door now for food; I’ve got packs here already made out.

WE’RE SEEING A LOT MORE KIDS AT OUR YOUTH CLUB WITH NO MONEY EVEN FOR TUCK SHOP.

This is very new. They don’t make a scene. It’s usually my wife who notices that they haven’t come up to the shop for a while, so she’ll ask me to have a quiet word. They tell me there’s nothing spare because “we’re finding it hard with gas”, so I spout them a couple of quid and tell them to go up to the tuck shop like everyone else. It’s part of the relationship, noticing the little things, those slight changes in behaviour that tell you someone isn’t quite OK.

For the older youth, we try to provide food each week, but there’s no funding for that. We tend to cover it out of our own pockets, just to make sure they have something to eat.

I’m working in an area where most are third to fourth generation welfare, some with parents and siblings in prison. The young people think getting involved with gangs will make them rich, but I’m here to talk them out of that.

One person in our youth group, his mum didn’t want him – that’s the long and the short of it. He lived with his nan until social services said he couldn’t do that anymore and to go back to mum. She was with a new partner, they smashed all his stuff, she nicked his mobile phone, and he found himself sleeping rough in a supermarket café at eleven years old. Just a normal lad. He ended up living with his dad who’d he’d only seen twice before moving in. That’s the life for kids here. Their role models have been really poor.

A girl I worked with as a mentor in schools, was on her last chance. School had given up on her, she was always getting into trouble with the police, she was basically written off.

WE HAD SOME FRANK CONVERSATIONS, AND SHE WAS ABLE TO TURN IT AROUND AND FINISHED SCHOOL ABLE TO ATTEND COLLEGE. I INVITED HER TO VOLUNTEER WITH US, AND SHE TOLD ME THE EXPERIENCE CHANGED THE DIRECTION OF HER LIFE.

She’s now working in schools, wanting to give back and to help steer other young people into making better choices.