Greg* has a long and complex history, having spent time in several children’s homes including a secure care home.
When he was fifteen it was felt that local resources were not able to meet his complex needs. This led to Greg being placed in a children’s home some distance from his family and friends.
On leaving care at seventeen Greg was housed in a flat and allocated outreach support from another local agency. Greg got on well with his support worker who introduced him to the music scene. Music is now an on-going passion in Greg's life. But his worker also introduced him to cocaine, skunk and ecstasy. This eventually led to Greg leaving his job to deal drugs.
Greg ended up serving a two year prison sentence for burglary. In prison Greg used his time constructively and gained building qualifications and developed his music skills.
From prison Greg moved to St Christopher's supported housing.
From the moment he moved in Greg made the best use of all the support opportunities available to him; including weekly one-to-one support sessions to plan and guide progress. Getting into employment was Greg's main priority and in his first two days we helped him apply for 31 jobs. Within five days he was working full time.
Since then Greg has been made redundant but found work again within days. Greg even bounced back from an unscrupulous boss who stole money from him. After leaving that job Greg started job hunting straight away and was working again within a week.
Greg now offers music lessons to other young people, regularly organises music events within the local community, often raising funds for others. He wants to use his music skills to help other young people who have “had it bad”. Ultimately he wants a career in music and is now gigging and appearing on local radio in pursuit of his goal.
Greg's support worker and probation officer are delighted with his progress and move on and resettlement are being planned.
Greg describes his time at St Christopher's as “a bit of a pain with the rules as I am twenty, but it is definitely what you make of it, the support and guidance is there which is what I needed. If I had people around me like this [before] it might have gone down differently for me. If I was in a flat and got behind with rent I would have been kicked flat but you guys give me time and get on my back to get sorted.”
*names in case studies are altered to ensure anonymity