For the last few weeks I’ve been volunteering with the Princes Trust as a Development Coach to a bunch of kids aged 16 – 20. They come from a variety of backgrounds- ex offenders, school dropouts, single parent or foster homes; but all lack self confidence and share a pessimistic view on life characteristic of the rough neighbourhoods they come from, “Da Hoods!” or “Da Ghettos!” The Princes Trust Team programme is designed to help young people like these, from marginalized backgrounds, who are ‘unemployed, unexcited and unsure’ of their future 'get out of the box’ and learn practical skills like team working, tolerance, communication, leadership etc that will help in a job and in life
To communicate, I had to go through a crash course in “street” which is “basikly” speak really fast “yer?” and use words like “uknowamean?” (You know what I mean?); “Koching” (relaxing with friends); “bare” (numerous); “drawing” (smoking weed… don’t ask); “Blood”/“Bruv” (close friend or brother) “Laow it!” (I object strongly) and “innit?” (Isn’t it?)
"You get me?"
I’m not sure what a Development Coach does, so I’m kind of winging it by listening, giving advice, praising, mucking in with team activities and more recently editing CV’s and job application letters (a complete translation and rewrite in some cases)
In weeks 3 and 4, the kids undertook a Community Project where they fundraised for and converted a local primary school’s disused shed into an Art Storage Shed. Despite the rain, snow and subzero conditions, I was impressed to see that most of them showed up everyday and took ownership of the project. As you can see, on the last day I was roped in to artistically paint one of the tables. However, later on it was decided unanimously by the Team to paint over my artwork with unimaginative basic yellow!
That’s ok… I don’t care… even the famous Van Gogh, did not get much recognition during his lifetime!
