Annual Review 2009 - Nacro

24
Nacro
Annual Review 2008/09
Positive
choices
Flintshire, Wales
Nacro Cymru youth choices and skills for life
‘I don’t want to go back to my
old ways. Everyone has a past,
as long as you learn from it
that’s the main thing.’ Stuart
Watch Stuart tell
his story and hear
from his project
worker, Andy, at
www.nacro.org.uk
Stuart, 25, leans against the office doorway
and points at the blue logo. That little sign,
he says, changed his life.
It wasn’t one thing that led to Stuart
becoming homeless. It never is. He’d split
up with his girlfriend and was on probation
for being violent during an argument – he
was depressed and desperate. ‘I was
wandering through town with nowhere
to go, when I noticed the Nacro sign,’ he
says. ‘I remembered a mate mentioning
Nacro. He said they’d helped him, so I
went inside.’
Stuart had stumbled upon Nacro Cymru’s
Youth Choices and Skills for Life – a dropin
service for 16 to 25 year olds who need
support and advice. Andy, a support
worker at the service, explains: ‘Our main
aim is to help people get on their feet and
into education or employment.’
But not everyone Andy sees is ready to
look for work or go to college. ‘If their basic
skills or social skills aren’t up to being in
environments with people they don’t know,
we work with them to improve that,’ he
says. Andy often starts his work with the