Saturday, April 12, 2014

YMCA supporting young humans coming out of prison.

Banged Up and Left to Fail? YMCA on BBC3
Thursday, 10 April 2014 09:55
Natalie Atkinson presents a BBC 3 documentary on young offenders
Earlier this week saw the premiere of the BBC3 documentary ' Banged up and Left to fail?' presented by Natalie Atkinson, who was supported by YMCA after coming out of prison and subsequently became a housing worker at Carlisle YMCA. In the programme, Natalie speaks candidly about how she spent the majority of her teenage years moving in and out of prison and examines the impact of serving a jail sentence on young adult offenders.
Natalie meets with several young offenders from across the country, including Elliot who tells her of his difficulties finding employment after serving his sentence. After suggesting volunteering as a way of gaining experience, Natalie and Elliot visit a YMCA England charity shop in Preston. Natalie mentions it was at YMCA where she got her first chance of work after being released, and the shop agrees to give Elliot the chance to start working in the shop. They return at the end of the programme to find out how he has found his first day.
You can watch the documentary on BBC iPlayer (available until Wednesday 16 April).