Thomas’ Story: “Youth Zone helped me find my confidence and try new things”

Meet Thomas* (not his real name), aged 15 and a member at Blackburn and Darwen Youth Zone.

Before I joined Youth Zone, I would stay at home and play video games with only a few friends. I struggled a bit with general schoolwork and decided to join the Youth Zone because life was quite boring, and I did very little.

My family encouraged me to join – at the time I was struggling with engaging in different activities, particularly sports. I needed help in improving my confidence and being more active and often found this difficult because it was outside of my comfort zone.

The Youth Zone supported me by providing a safe space and helped me to build trust and boost my confidence. I joined in with activities like pool and gaming, football, badminton and even arts and crafts. These helped me make new friends and connections, and the staff worked with me by listening to my thoughts and ideas and taught me new skills.

Since joining, I have noticed that I am now much healthier and sportier, and I am really happy to say that I have genuinely lost some weight by attending Youth Zone regularly. I feel more confident in trying new things and activities, and the Youth Zone has helped to strike conversations and engage in unique activities.

Some of the biggest changes I have seen in myself have been my ability to converse with others more easily and I have also become healthier by losing two stone in weight. I am proud of myself for accomplishing these achievements and because of how well I excel in different sports – which I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to try out, if it wasn’t for the Youth Zone.

In the future, I want to work on improving my faith and I believe that the Youth Zone can help me by providing a multicultural safe space where I can practice different aspects of my religion. I believe that I can achieve this because of my strong determination and aspirations.