Ingeus UK - Jamie's story transcript

Margaret Slyfie: My name is Margaret, commonly known as Maggie, and I'm a Personal Wellbeing Mentor. It works by the young person or the person, not only the young person, being referred to us from probation who have come out of prison, maybe on license, and the whole idea of the program is to stop them re-offending. I met Jamie about eight, 10 weeks ago. He came here, hoodie up, very closed, one syllable answers really. And by the end of the session, just over an hour, hoodie was down and we'd built that rapport. He's now got to the stage where he's going to become a peer mentor within the program.

Jamie Wilson: I've been through the system my whole life, from getting arrested to courtrooms, to being in probation. I also have mental health problems, and all of these things, doctors, mental health courts have always been individual things. I feel like this is the first service where all of it be put together. I would recommend this more than probation community service, because you're not teaching them nothing there. You're just going there and you're just doing a set routine. Oh, you've got to clean a street. Oh, you've got to come to probation and do here. Here, you're actually getting through problems, you're actually looking for a solution. And I'm thinking about the future, I've never had that.

Margaret Slyfie: It's a personal service we give to that person. So it's really imperative that we meet them for the first time, build that rapport, and then the rest will just flow.

Jamie Wilson: I've always felt like I've never been given a chance with the system. So now I've been given a chance, I'm going to show that it was worth to give it to me.