Going for Bronze – Salem, Cobs and Owen’s Duke of Edinburgh experience

Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award

Recently, a group of young people supported by Centrepoint’s Bradford services, have completed their bronze Duke of Edinburgh award. The award challenges young people to take on four separate areas of personal development covering volunteering, physical recreation, skills and an expedition over the course of six months. 

After completing three of the elements of the award, the young people finished their experience with a podcast recording with Yorkshire Housing for their volunteering. This was an opportunity for them all to reflect on their experience with the award, with living at Centrepoint and what they are looking to in the future.

Salem, Cobs and Owen all found the experience a real challenge but got more out of it then they were expecting. When thinking back about what he enjoyed about it the most, Salem said “Honestly the best bit about it was doing stuff that you typically don’t get to do. Meeting and working with amazing new people has been great.” 

Owen’s story

Owen came to Centrepoint at 18 during a time where he was struggling with substance misuse which caused a family breakdown. “I just turned 18 and I was using at the time, it was a bit of weed and some class As. I was arguing with my mum and dad a lot – stealing off them, criminal damage and I went to court on my 18th birthday. I was involved with a drug and alcohol project who advised me that I could go to Centrepoint. I decided to take it and that’s how I ended up here.”

When he first moved into Centrepoint, he struggled to adjust and moved to another service temporarily before finding his feet back at Centrepoint. “I did get worse before I got better. It was a new situation, and I was mixing with the wrong crowd with the people in the area. I did spiral out a bit and did some questionable things."

“I went to a different place for 6 weeks, maybe a bit longer. I had an argument with someone there, which led me back to Centrepoint again and at that point Anthony was my support worker. I ended up getting myself clean, obviously with his help, and now I’ve gotten my own place.”

He thinks about the support he received when he first came to Centrepoint and the impact it had on helping him to get into his own flat and getting clean. “If you’re willing to put the effort in, they’re willing to put the effort in as well. The support has been life changing. Even though I had the freedom to do my own thing, the support was always there, and they were always willing to do anything they could within their power to help me.”

When looking back at what he had been through, he reflected on the experience and had some words of advice for young people in similar situations. “I would say that no matter what, it will get better eventually. At my lowest point, I thought this is just going to be it and then as time goes on, it’s gotten a lot better. To be honest, I thought I would be dead with the path I was going down. But the future is looking very bright.”

Owen’s settling in well to his new flat with his half-Frenchie, half-Boston Terrier Mila, who’s keeping him busy and helping him to carve out the freedom and independence he was looking for.

Cobs’s story

Cobs spent most of his life in care but when he was 17, the care home found it hard to find him an appropriate place where he could continue to live. After finding him a temporary accommodation to move to, he found himself struggling and didn't stay for long before his mum offered to support him. However, staying with her was challenging and before long, he contacted his care home who were able to find him emergency accommodation. 

“I moved into my mother’s which didn’t end well. Simply because she thought I wasn’t doing well enough in her expectations and then I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I was still able to contact the people from the care home who found an emergency placement to stay.”

After being moved into emergency housing, Cobs’s support worker suggested that he reach out to Centrepoint where he stayed for a year. Centrepoint was able to give Cobs support in a range of different areas, helping him to feel more confident in living independently and taking steps to move into his own home.

“Compared to before I worked with Centrepoint, I had no idea what I was doing. There wasn’t really anyone helping me. When I moved in, things became a bit more balanced. They made it a bit easier, just having them there.”

Cobs is now living independently, but still gets support and advice from Centrepoint if he needs it. For him, having some support from moving out of the care system into independent living has been a real help, but he's worried about other young people in similar situations who don't have the guidance of an organisation like Centrepoint.

“From moving out of care, it would have been good to have a better understanding of knowing what to do and how to do it. A huge percentage of care leavers end up being homeless because we don’t get the support we need when we leave care.”

He says for other young people who might be facing similar challenging, “even if you think it’s really hard, do what you can to find the support that you might need.”

He’s excited to be living in his own home now, and although it has been challenging and he was initially anxious about living independently, he feels better placed to know how to support himself. His next step is to get himself some pets to help settle in more. “I’ve never actually had my own place so I can’t wait to get a cabinet of snakes – I would love to have snakes!”

Salem’s story

Salem moved into a Centrepoint service after he lost his mother last year, which meant he did not have a place to stay. He is currently looking to move into his own place to begin living his life independently.

Whilst living at Centrepoint, he’s been developing his skills to be able to live by himself and is trying to access mental health support. “I’ve had discussions with my key worker, I’ve attended Life Wise courses and I’m on the waiting list at the moment for my mental health.”

When thinking back to his experiences and any advice he would give to young people who were facing similar situations, Salem said, “It might sound basic, but the best advice is to stay positive because if you can’t stay positive around dilemmas you can’t build yourself back up. Sometimes in the hardest situations, you have to force your way through with a smile.”

Starting the award

Salem, Owen and Cobs’s Duke of Edinburgh award began with taking part in the Soapbox Challenge. This is an annual event where a group create a handmade cart and race it through the streets in order to be crowned champion. All the young people said how much they enjoyed the experience and that it was a great way to grow together as a team before they took on the rest of the award. 

Another part of the award is completing an expedition element, where the young people have to plan a route, take part in a hike and do an overnight stay. Salem said that he found the expedition the best part of the award, “I found the expedition part very interesting, and it was engaging as well as fun obviously!”, although he remembers feeling very tired when they completed the walk. “My feet were very battered and red by the end of it!”

Cobs enjoyed being able to plan the route and reading local maps, “We had to plan the route of where we would be walking for the expedition and using the map of the area. I had to say I definitely enjoyed that cos that’s my kind of fun!”

Volunteering with Yorkshire Housing

As the final element of the award, the young people took part in a podcast with Yorkshire Housing, with Cobs and Owen hoping to edit the recording to create the final version. The purpose of the recording was for the young people to find out about how to put a podcast together, and before the episode they had an opportunity to talk through podcast production with the team.

Cobs is interested in working in sound engineering so for him the opportunity to get some practical experience has been a huge help. “I’m getting to work with sound equipment and my future plans are all around working in sound engineering and using the equipment that I’m using now and working with other people as well. At the moment, what I’m needing is more practical stuff and not just the theory. So doing all this really helps me.”

Similarly, Owen is currently at college for editing and valued the opportunity to get involved with the recording. “I’m currently editing at college and so things like this can give me the practice and that helping hand, so I was really keen to do it.” 

The importance of volunteering

For all the young people they feel that taking part in volunteering opportunities, in any capacity, is really important and a worthwhile thing to do.

For Cobs, who was in care for 14 years before coming to Centrepoint, he says how valuable it has been to volunteer on the care leavers council to support young people just like him. “I volunteer with the care leavers council for children’s services. I’ve been doing that for a long time now and I get to interview social workers, hirers and foster carers and even people higher up – you know, the big cheeses! We get to do things like have big meetings on what we think might be good for children in care and they take what we say and see if they can make that change. I’ve had a lot of care experience and before I wasn’t able to share my thoughts on what I thought about the things in care”.

Owen hadn’t volunteered before he took part in the podcast recording but recognises how important it’s been to him and also how helpful it might be for other young people. “I’d say it’s very important for young people these days, especially Duke of Edinburgh, cos it looks good on your CV. To get opportunities like this is really hard, so I would say if you get the chance to do it, you should do it. You can make friends and long-lasting memories, and you get those skills that you might not have at college or school.”

“If you’re willing to volunteer it doesn’t matter what you’re doing or what you’re getting out of it, you’re doing it for the sake of doing it.”

The impact of the award

Jay and Anthony, who have supported Cobs, Salem and Owen throughout their time with Centrepoint, have both noticed a huge change in them during the award and are proud of everything they have achieved.

Jay says, “I’ve seen these guys come on from where they’ve started, we’ve seen the whole journey. And to where they are now, we are so proud of that, we have seen so many changes and it’s really great to hear that in their own voices.”

Jay was especially impressed by the young people’s bravery in opening up about their experiences of living with Centrepoint and of the impact award in such an open setting. “You could take it for granted just having a group session like this, but it’s also the camaraderie and going against the fears of coming out and the social anxiety and things like that to come and meet a group and being trusted within that group and finding yourself and your voice within that group.”

“These are experiences you never thought you would actually get involved in but it’s about pushing out of your comfort zone and these guys have done that every year. You see them get out of that comfort zone and it’s great to see the development of where each and every one of them have come to.”

We are so proud of everything they have all achieved during the award and beyond. Everyone at Centrepoint wishes them all the best for their futures and can’t wait to hear about what they all do next! Here's to them all starting their silver award this year.