Today 2nd Chance attended the Positive Futures Impact report where all the projects from across the South West presented the achievements of their young people and projects from 2009.

It was great to see what many of our partners are doing and to hear from the young people directly, our Apprentices Fabian and Jim over in Knowle West Positive Futures have made great progress, having nearly finished their apprenticeship, unfortunately they were both ill and were unable to come today and talk about how far they have come this year, but their manager Alistair Dale gave everyone an update on them and the other work they are doing and 2nd Chance will catch up with them in the New Year. What was striking was the wide range of activities all the projects run, from a group of girls in Swindon putting their own song together, to dance troups in Gloucester and wide range of community sport initiatives across the city of Bristol, everyone had a story to tell.

One young man made an impression on all of us. His name is Kirk Surgeon, and is one of Riverside Youth projects successes. He stood up front of everyone and told his story. His speech was both brave and inspirational as he talked about how he had lost most of his family from a young age and felt as if he had nothing and no direction in life. That was until he met the Stinchcombe's at Riverside Youth Project. 

He talked about how far he has come on his personal journey and how he has used boxing as his focus to get his life back on track. His ambitious goal is to become world middleweight champion and anyone who heard him speak today would have no doubt that he'll get there. He was an inspiration to his peers and those around him. Here you can see him demonstrating his sparring skills with another of Riverside's former apprentices Sam Pomphrey.

Posted: 14.12.09 16:06