GoodNewsStories

Good News Stories

Ashley:
Ashley signed up for the team-mates mentoring programme where he has had a successful match with Dave.

During this time Ashley’s behaviour both in school and at home has improved greatly.
Ashley was recently in front of the authorities to see if his ASBO could be withdrawn. His behaviour and compliance whilst on the programme was taken into account and his ASBO was rescinded.

Liam:
Liam joined the team-mates mentoring programme and is currently matched with Steve.

Liam plays rugby in his spare time and he has focussed most of his mentored sessions working on his strength and stamina.

Liam’s hard work recently paid dividends when he was selected to tour with the Derbyshire Under 13’s in the south of England.

John* (not his real name) was reffered to the programme from the Youth Offending Service. John did not attend school and had a history of offending. He was matched with Dave a retired business man who loved sport and wanted to give something back to his local community.

Over the year long match John and Dave took part in various sports such as golf, walking and even tried diving! The mentoring relationship developed and John was able to discuss his school issues with Dave. These were fed back to the school and together a plan was developed to help John engage with school again.

The school that John attended took part in Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service YES programme, which was 1 day per week for 12 weeks. Because of John's improved attitude and attendance at school he was nominated to attend the programme.

This increased his confidence still further and he passed out of the programme with flying colours. John is now a Fire cadet in his free time, he is attending school regularly,his offending has stopped.

John's success has been due to his hard work, the Fire Service programme and the mentoring relationship between John and Dave which enabled John to trust an adult to listen and be on his side

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Mentors stories:

Ian Camm is currently employed as a postman and when not at work he plays a lot of different sports. Ian trained to be a sports mentor on the Team Mates program after seeing the advert last year. Ian was put in a unique situation as the young man he was asked to mentor was actually being mentored by a colleague who had accepted a job abroad and had to leave the program almost immediately. Ian joined Andrew his colleague for a week to be introduced to a young man with huge sporting talent. However, although he has talent, he finds it difficult to lose and gets aggressive towards anyone who beats him and frustrated with himself as he feels there must be a winner every time he plays a sporting game. His school has been exceptionally supportive, due to his background and they say that he will play professional football one day, but without a sportsmanship like attitude he will not be accepted into a club. So Ian has worked with the young man by taking part in a wide range of sports and showing him not only how to react to being beaten, but by removing the must win at all costs mentality, this allows us to improve technique and game play and add more enjoyment to the various sports that we cover. This has also had a knock on effect to the way the young man behaves at school and at home and teachers have noticed improvements.

Ian quotes ‘I myself find our weekly meeting very enjoyable as it is another chance for myself to play sports and mentor, as part of the programme is to introduce our (cases) to various sports we could be playing tennis, football, laser quest ha ha, table tennis and now the summer is here cricket in the nets and a game of rugby will be on the list to do.’

Geoff works for Derby City Council and has competed for Birmingham based Birchfield Harriers Athletics Club. He is extremely passionate about sport and saw a Sporting Futures advert last year advertising for volunteer sports mentors. Geoff Knew he could help and wanted to give something back to the community and gain some valuable experience. After completing his training he was matched with a thirteen year old young man who had been excluded from school. He had been showing signs of aggressive behaviour at school. He was currently part time in a Pupil Referral Unit and he lives with his grandparents. However, he was disrespectful to his grandmother and also showed signs of aggressive behaviour at home. The young male was very quiet and withdrawn and at first Geoff found it difficult to engage with him

Geoff has been able to break down these barriers and has listened carefully to the young man's concerns. As the weeks have gone on, Geoff has built a good mentoring relationship with the young male and has worked on a personal fitness program as well as introducing him to a variety of sports
including: boxing. The young man has increased his fitness levels and his confidence. He has also worked very hard for his exams with encouragement by Geoff and has just started back into main stream school…..