Second chance is the perfect Christmas gift

It really is surprisingly easy to dismiss young people as rowdy, obnoxious, ill-mannered, illiterate, innumerate, violent, and everything that is bad about modern society.

I bet you’ve done it. Little hooligans!

You’re walking through a shopping centre, and there’s a bunch of them in their cool trainers, baggy trousers and a hoodie, giving it some serious att-e-chood, and leaving you with the distinct feeling they’d happily kick your head in. If they could be “bovvered”.

I work for a charity, and recently had the opportunity to meet some young people who really were scary – a lad who had been dealing drugs since he was 12, another chased down the motorway by six police cars, and a teenage girl who hadn’t been to school for 2 years and beat up another girl because she annoyed her.

I was filming them and listening to what they had to say. I wasn’t prepared for what I heard. All of these young people were so far into the room with the word “trouble” on the door, you’d have needed a torch, sturdy walking shoes and a packed lunch to find them.

All had rampaged into the world of youth offending, and as an alternative to custody, were referred to us to see if our expertise could help to turn them around.

All of them came from families where relationships had broken down – divorce, absent parents, drug abuse, criminal activity, and a dozen other sad and depressing situations. One had been through so many care homes and temporary foster families they’d lost count. Let down by their families, and let down by society.

Something remarkable had happened to them though. Something miraculous and resolutely positive, bursting out of the cloud of negativity like a bolt of lightning. Given the opportunity and help, they were turning their lives around. With encouragement and assistance, they were taking the positive decisions and direction they had been needing, in some cases, all their lives.

Deciding to return to education, learning new skills, getting help with their CVs, helping out doing-up the crumbling building the help came from, doing positive community work, realising what they were good at doing. Understanding the benefits of their new paths, and that they could actually build themselves a future. Hope and ambition, for possibly the first time, instead of anger and destruction.

Yes, there are young people out there who have done (and are doing) very bad things, and I’m not asking you to pop up the High Street and “hug a hoodie”. Not all of them can, will, or have the desire to change. But some do.

It’s Christmas – time for the kids, right? Maybe the most important gift we can give some of them is a very simple one - A second chance.

Have a wonderful festive season. And count your blessings.

This post first appeared in my 'Thank grumpy it's Friday' column in the North West Evening Mail on Friday 21st December 2012. This is the unedited version - unfortunately, it hasn't made it on to their website this week for some reason. Happily, they retained my title though.

(Tunes today from Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - "Anthology, Through The Years".)

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