Celebrating Small Breakthroughs which Make a BIG Difference

This story is shared by our ‘Made of More’ Project Coordinator here at Golddigger Trust:

"Around a year ago I started working with a young lad named Jacob*. He was quiet, speaking mostly in 1-word answers, he talked about being angry all the time. He said he would punch walls and windows to release this anger. On top of this, he was in an emotionally abusive relationship, he knew it wasn’t healthy for him, but he didn’t seem able to escape. We met regularly for 5-6 months with some small breakthroughs at times. It was so obvious there was a young man so full of potential just under the surface. We took a short break while he was sitting his GSCE’s. A few months later we met up again and I saw a different man; free from his abusive relationship, free from anger issues and a wide smile on his face. He said he couldn’t pin point a specific moment of transformation, but he described life as just “different” and “better”. He is now working, at college and has surrounded himself with people who encourage him and empower him. 

Sometimes change takes time, and sometimes we don’t see it straight away and it be can easy to miss the fact that the work we do with young people has such a powerful lasting impact."

*named changed