Darren McWilliams, Project Manager for Inspire, met with ‘Kaz’ to discuss her experiences with Inspire, FOCUS, our work and reflecting on what worked and the impact upon her life.
Darren: “What did you think of the Inspire Project during your first few sessions?”
Kaz: “At first, I thought it was boring…like, really boring. We’d do a session on something, and I’d think ‘why would you do a session like that?’ But then a week later we would have a session on something to do with that previous one, and we’d be like, ‘Oh that’s why.’ Then I became friends with some people there, and I thought ‘it’s not as bad.’”
“Everyone was telling me what I would get out of it. Was it really going to happen? Were you guys lying? But Mum said, ‘Just go and do it.’ And then I was like, ‘yeah I will.’
“Everyone’s weird, I think – weird in different ways. You realise you and them aren’t as weird as you thought. Before FOCUS I had been expelled from school four times, and kicked out of semi-permanent school three times and kicked off two separate courses.”
Kaz discussed how, during the residential trip, she had displayed challenging behaviour and actions:
“I probably should have been sent home for that. It’s like you guys understood a bit more than most people. I know you understood that it wasn’t as bad as it looked, and you didn’t keep bringing it up on people… Yeah, once it was done, it was done. If I did something else, you wouldn’t say, ‘You’ve done this and you’ve done that’.
“Lots of places were like that, especially schools… They’d be like ‘You’ve done this and that… and you’ve done this at your old school, so goodbye.’”
Darren: “What did you enjoy doing on the project?”
Kaz: “I really liked the Homeless project we did, making survival kits etc. I was really interested in the Child Sexual Exploitation thing… so it was interesting to see you guys talk about that. I’d be really interested in helping young people about that in the future.
“I also liked the consistency. Like this week, we’re doing sessions on Wednesday and Saturday, but then next week you knew when they were going to happen.
“I think it helped me like people that I normally wouldn’t get along with. Like, I would never give them a chance before. Mostly when I was annoyed I would like to punch someone straight in the face. But you guys gave me other ways to resolve things instead, and you’d get me to consider other things.
Darren: “What motivated you to continue with Inspire?”
Kaz:“You and Minder [former Inspire Assistant Manager] were more experienced with my kind of issues than the rest of them, so you were more understanding than them. You guys helped me at a time when things were really rocky… I’d come from a rocky background; I’d been kicked out of school and me and my mum and my dad were not getting on. I learnt that Inspire can help you at times when you don’t realise some of the [bad] things you’re getting up to with your friends. We didn’t think anything was wrong with it because we didn’t see it was wrong…like going out on the park and drinking for no reason. I’m like, how would you do that now? I’d say that I’m more open minded to things. Because you guys kind of forced me to – you kind of gave me no choice but to.”
Kaz has and is still working, though presently considering where her experience skills will call her.
Kaz: ‘’I’d say that from my experience it has helped me to be more level-headed, because I used to get quite angry and I’m now (what’s the word?) more… optimistic about the future. I’m really interested to see what happens.”
Darren: “So you’re more hopeful about the future?”
Kaz: “Yeah, I hope so, if not I’ll be raging.”