Ex-offender Junior Smart has been employed by the St Giles Trust since 2006. Since then, he has helped to establish the SOS Gangs Project, an ex-offender-led gangs intervention project that works across 12 London boroughs and offers support to young people who are caught up in gangs and weapons crime.
What were the motivations for founding the SOS Gangs Project?
I had been sent down for 12 years in my early 20s and while I was in prison, I could see that young offenders were just getting younger - they were being sent down for really serious offences.
Towards the end of my sentence, I came across the St Giles Trust. They didn't just say they worked with offenders, they actually advocated the employment of ex-offenders.
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