I’m 16 now and looking back I can see more clearly the problems I’ve had over the past few years. At the time I thought I was living the life and having fun. But now I realise some of the decisions I made were quite dangerous and could have really affected my future in a bad way.

I was never very good at lessons and when I left primary, I was sent to a special school out of my area and away from all my friends which I didn’t like. I didn’t get on with my mum. She just didn’t understand me. We would argue all the time and sometimes it would get a bit physical. It was then that I started to run away. I would bunk off school. I’d go out with my mates in the evening and smoke a bit of weed and share a small bottle of vodka. Then sometimes I would stay out past curfew and stop at a friend’s house.  I couldn’t understand what the fuss was about, but the police got involved. Me and my friend were picked up and taken to the police station. We used the toilet and the key was on the inside so we locked ourselves in and the police had to break the door down!  We thought this was hilarious and filmed it. We also filmed ourselves in the back of the police van and posted it.  On another occasion we smashed the windows of a takeaway. It’s all a bit of a blur now, and I was encouraged to do all kinds of stupid stuff by Charlotte who was my best friend then.

This was when someone from Urban Outreach came to see me. I wasn’t interested to start with. But she got me. After chatting I realised how badly some of the things I got involved in could have gone wrong. And when I stopped out all night, I was putting myself at risk with some dodgy people. The worker from Urban Outreach explained some of the dangers in how I was using Snapchat. I was under a lot of pressure to keep posting my B-Reel and daily streaks. I was always on it and panicked whenever I misplaced my phone. It was definitely affecting my mental health, but I didn’t see it at the time.

I realised I needed to take control of the decisions I was making and not be so impulsive. I feel I’ve got it together much better now. My relationship with mum has got a lot better and I’m focussed on what happens when I leave school.  I’m really grateful for all the help I got from my support worker from Urban. I’m really interested in making music and she got me involved in a local youth project where I’m enjoying some creative arts.”