Danny’s story

As a teen I was a troubled young man, I had experienced a lot of trauma and had even more issues I could not deal with as a young person. I started offending when I moved to Scotland when I was 13 years old. Moving to Scotland was difficult as I came from London to a small rural town in Southwest Scotland. I faced a lot of challenges including racism towards me for being English and discrimination for not being a local. My offending started with fights in and outside of school and then I started committing different crimes like vandalism and theft.

At school I had a group I worked with called C.H.Y.P.S (children and young people service) and to be fair to them tried their best to stop me spiralling out of control, and if I am honest, I did not do myself any favours. At the age of 15 I was charged with arson and breaking into a lockfast safe, these chargers were not brought to court until I turned 16 and I was tried as an adult at court. Approaching my 16^th birthday, I was already in more trouble than I would care to even think about.

Shortly after my 16^th birthday I was sent to prison for fighting and breaching my bail conditions, this was the first of many prison sentences. While I was in prison, I tried to say to myself it was time to get my head on straight and try and get in to something that would keep me out of trouble and help me towards a better future and then I joined Apex Scotland.

I would not say I was easy to deal with nor was I very engageable with any services prior to Apex Scotland, I have to say they were my saving grace. I was treated like a real person and not just a bad person, like how I felt I was treated in prison and by other services which in my eyes I was just a number. With Apex Scotland I was given chances and opportunities through colleges and job opportunities such as the forestry commission, I went on a placement with the forestry commission which opened my eyes up to real work. What really changed my life was when Apex Scotland arranged for a college lecturer who was a cooking teacher came in to teach us to cook for a day, and that day a guy called Mr Lisi came to show us how to cook and prepare a banoffee pie which honestly changed my life, I was dumb founded about how this was made, cooked and prepared to perfection. It was then I decided I wanted to go to college and developed an interest in cooking. Apex Scotland helped me to apply for a college course and to fill in my college application and I was accepted. After college I went on to work in a few kitchens as a commis chef and a cook in a pub restaurant. I feel Apex Scotland had done me very proud on sticking with me as a troubled young man and inspired me.

A few years later I managed to secure a job with Apex Scotland as a lived experience mentor and I have now moved up to a practitioner position supporting people through their justice journey, I have now been working for Apex Scotland for nearly 2 years and enjoy my post as I get to make a positive impact in the community with the people I support in group work and volunteering.