Goals UK teaches hard-to-reach young people to work out what they really want to do with their lives. We spoke to founder Philip Collett and youth manager Oliver Ashton about what they do and why it works.
Between 13 and 19 Oliver Ashton was constantly in trouble with the law, often egged on by other lads in his care home. Now in his 30s he's head of youth services for the charity Goals UK. The charity reaches the teenagers regarded as 'hard cases', and re-instills boundaries and purpose.
Both begin by describing the life experience that leads to jail. Philip says: ‘Take a bunch of children who are totally off track. That peer group won’t help with the transition from child to adulthood, it’ll help them on the transition from childhood to prison. Because they’re hanging around with the crack dealer, the girl who’s selling herself, the lads who go down town the whole time and get done for nicking. The worst scenario is that they end up in prison where they don’t have to make their meals, they don’t have to do anything because everything’s done for them.'
Oliver adds: 'How to get something for nothing quickly, that’s the game. I want to feel good right now. If you’re in a car and you’ve got a bit of money because you’ve got away with a burglary, that’s what briefly gives you a boost in your self-esteem which is usually on the floor.
'I’ve spoken to people inside prison and their self-esteem is higher inside than it is outside. Because the screws know them, there might be some stick if they go back in, but it feels OK because they know them. They make sure their room is kitted out the way it was the previous time they were in there. When they come back in, everyone goes ‘I knew you’d be back’. They are part of a community, they feel lovable and capable. They know the rules, they are not going to take too many risks, they are not going to get abandoned, no-one’s going to kick them out. There's a security there.'
Goals UK trainers have grown up in the world they are describing, or on its fringes, so they understand how it works - and how to break the cycle. The centre of their work is a three-day course helping young people look at cause and effect. Philip explains:
'We are 100% responsible for our lives. There are some things you haven't got control over, events. We teach E + R = O.
'E stands for the stuff, the events, that happen outside of you: it rains, there’s a recession, one of your parents dies, someone bumps into your car.
'R stands for your response and O stands for your outcome.
'Someone bumps in your car, that’s the event. You can respond by going over to them, dragging them out , road rage. Result: the police get called and you end up in court. Another response to that same event is you pull over, you exchange details, you sort your car. Outcome: you get on with your life.
'A lot of people don’t respond, they react. Someone bumps into their car, they’ve got a load of anger which actually is meant for their father who abandoned them. They react, smacking the driver. And he’s nothing to do with it really. He's a bystander.'
'We teach that in order to achieve better outcomes you need response + ability. We put this across to the young people and they get it.
'It's been a middle-class sport, self-development, up until now. We take it into prisons, we take it into the care system, we take it to the long-term unemployed and single mothers. We give them this information, core basic foundation truths about life and what they can do about it, how they can be more in control of themselves.'
Recently staff from Goals UK have been training staff from Essex Council to deliver the Goals programme. Philip argues that it's often not just the young people who need the training, but those who care for them, who may also be demotivated and have no idea how to handle the behaviour of teenagers going off the rails. He says that after young people leave the three-day training 'the pilot light is on' but they need it to be reinforced by carers, social workers and teachers.
Goals UK is giving out a tough message on responsibility, but it works because the end product is not to force teenagers into more constrained lives, but to get them to set their own boundaries - and then find out what they really want.
Oliver says: 'we get through the popstars and models thing right at the beginning. We say "look, here’s a media view of success, what is it?" And they’ll shout out money, bling, mansion. Then when you talk about what their personal view of success is, it’s very different - having a job, children, going on holiday. If they want to make loads of money – great, that’s fine. But 90% of what makes you happy is about internal status – what you think of yourself.'