Daniel, 17, has been a member of Raising Your Game in Oldbury, West Midlands, since May 2011.
“In the past, I got caught with drugs and got into trouble. And I’ve been expelled from school a lot of times, for fighting and things like that. I used to hang around shopping centres with loads of people, but I’ve stopped doing that now.
The pressure started at school, hanging around with the wrong people and getting into fights. Raising Your Game is working on stopping us giving in to this peer pressure.
The Raising Your Game group is sound. It’s getting people off the streets for a bit, so they can’t cause trouble. And the staff are upfront and helpful.
It helps with my confidence and has helped me to improve my communication skills. I especially liked doing the high ropes course at Baggeridge Park. I felt it was really good and it helped to make me more confident.
I reckon it’s good to work through the problems we have – like getting into trouble with the police, court dates and all that – in a group, so we can hear what other people think. And I think getting some police officers down to talk to the group would be good, to see what they have to say and let us know what our rights are.
The Train the trainer course was good – everyone enjoyed that. If we go into organisations to give communication awareness training, they’ll see we’re just as capable as them.
Before I joined Raising Your Game, I did a basic motor vehicle skills course with Nacro. I went to Nacro straight from school.
In the future, I’d love to get into property development. I want to do a painting and decorating course, then I can go on to do a plastering course too. “