What was life like before 2nd chance?

Before I started at 2nd chance, I was a part time admin assistant for front of house at Knowle West Media Centre and part time training youth worker for Youth Moves. I really wanted to get into youth work full time but found it difficult as I couldn’t afford to go back to college and couldn’t find another way in. In May 2010, 2nd Chance approached KWMC to work in partnership on UrbanWise media project for young people within the area. KWMC already knew that I was interested in working with young people and asked me if I wanted to be a coordinator for the project. I had an absolute blast working on the project and was devastated when it was over because I knew I would go back to doing the same as before trying to find a way into youth work.

What is life like with 2nd Chance?

Thankfully, 2nd Chance saw how much I was willing to give everything to prove I wanted to work in youth work and offered me a job with them so that I could do an NVQ level 3 in Youth Work. Since December 2010, I have been given an amazing opportunity to develop UrbanWise Media Project, I have coordinated 20 future jobs fund employees, gained further experience in youth work within the @ life programme and still working hard on my NVQ level 3 in Youth Work. 2nd Chance has helped me learn life skills, changed my perception of so many things and encouraged me to achieve what I thought was unachievable. I used to be really negative about everything, I had no confidence with youth work and with the encouragement of 2nd Chance I feel I can achieve anything! If I had not been given the opportunity, I don’t where I would be today.

What are your plans for the future and how is 2nd Chance helping with that?

My main aim in my life is to ensure young people get the support they need to succeed in whatever they want to do. I know I can’t help every young person in England but there’s nothing wrong with giving it a go! I want to make UrbanWise a well known national (maybe even International) youth focused movement. I see that it will eventually have it’s own multi activity youth club that involves media, sport and youth work. 2nd Chance is helping me achieve this goal by giving me the support and expertise, offering leadership training and giving me as many opportunities to develop myself professionally through different qualifications relevant to UrbanWise.

What would you say to other people who are thinking about getting involved with 2nd chance?

To young people wanting to get involved in 2nd Chance I would say go for it and give it your all with whatever 2nd chance can offer you. You will be encouraged to achieve what you want to achieve and be what you want to be. The professionals within 2nd Chance have the tools and skills knowledge to develop you and if it’s something 2nd Chance cannot do (which is rare), then we have to contacts to get you into whatever you want to do.

To organisations that want to get involved with 2nd Chance, this would be a wise idea! In years to come 2nd Chance are going to be huge! Even bigger than what they are already. Affecting more young people’s lives, having greater aspirations and achieving what they set out to achieve. 2nd Chance encourages effective partnership working so if you’re already involved, great stuff you won’t regret it. If you’re not involved and you don’t know much about 2nd Chance, get to know! You’ll never look back.