- What was your first contact with youth work?
Having left school for Swan Hunter shipyard, I'd been out of work for three years in the 80s recession. I started volunteering for a community project in Middlesbrough. It was a life-changing experience. A worker there saw something in me and encouraged me.
- Did it lead to a job?
I did a year with social services through the community programme. All this time I was becoming quite politicised, I realised that young people often get a raw deal, and that there was more for me than life behind a welder's mask. I signed up to do the certificate in youth and community work at Sunderland Polytechnic.
- Was it a good experience?
Life changing. I had my eyes opened. I worked as welfare officer at the student union, getting further politicised.
- And then into youth work?
I moved to London and spent four years at a centre in Merton. It was lively but leisure-based. I wanted to get young people at the heart of decision-making and introduce more issue-based work. Did you have a career plan?
I've always looked to get a new challenge every four years or so. Shadow promotes youth work approaches to health across a range of settings. I've enjoyed picking up a project and driving it forward, attracting the right staff, getting funding, and sticking close to fundamental youth work principles.
