"# Seeing you from my window" "# This place is under my skin... #" "Stoke-on-Trent." "Home to some of the worst-off young people in one of the world's most hard-up towns in the UK." "There's people all over the world that have come from some rough areas." "It's what you make of what you have got." "Often, the most vulnerable end up here - the YMCA." "Whoo!" "Yes, I am." "Its mission - to give them a future." "Done!" "I was starting to go off the rails a little bit, so I've just completely turned it around." "It's not an easy job." "You're swearing, and there are people walking past." " You're on camera swearing." " I'm not swearing!" "You are - you don't even know you're doing it." "Across England and Wales, the YMCA provides a home for 10,000 young people..." "..but the charity fears that welfare cuts in this week's Budget could leave many of them on the streets." "If housing benefit was to go, just in YMCAs, there would be 1,400 people that could be made instantly homeless." "Morning!" "Morning, Nat." "It's 8am, and YMCA staff Sue and Lisa are waking some of the 117 residents." "They never know quite what to expect." "Morning!" "What are you up to?" "You look guilty." "Can you get me toilet roll, please?" " THEY LAUGH" " I'm not getting him bog roll." "Where am I supposed to produce a toilet roll from?" "!" "I don't know!" "What am I supposed to wipe it with?" "Hold on a minute." "Some of the jobs you get in the morning!" "I'm not coming in the bathroom, but here's your loo roll." "The YMCA, or Young Men's Christian Association, was set up in Victorian times." "Today, its doors are open to any young person in Stoke who needs a roof over their head." "It also tries to get them into either work or full-time education." "Chief executive Danny Flynn meets each new resident." "In here, mate." " I've met you, and I've met you" " I've met you, haven't I?" " Yeah." " Yeah." "I haven't met you." "I'm Sam." "Give us some of that, Sam." "Are you all right, mate?" " And you're...?" " Jason." " Superman, there." "We see ourselves as a life chances kind of redevelopment agency - and what that means in normal speak is, can we identify what the gift and talent is of the individuals, and can we invest in that talent and unlock that talent?" "So, have you had lots of life chances?" "Dunno." "No-one really gave me a chance." "No-one gave you a chance?" "If you want it, I can change your life, and I can get me staff to do - that's why I do me job." "If you don't want it, then you're probably best leaving." "To be truthful." "Cos you're wasting your time and my time, aren't you?" "The young people in the YMCA are descended from the potters, miners and steelworkers who made this place an industrial powerhouse." "This is a community that's lost not one, not two, but three big industries - and that's left a terrible hole." "Stoke, once home to the world's greatest potteries, is scarred by derelict factories." "Offices lie empty, untouched since the day their workers left them." "When I was a kid, 60-70,000 people were working in the pottery industry." "We were proud." "We were very clear we would be workers, you know?" "And there's still that imprint." "People in Stoke may still want to be workers, but many of them aren't - and one in four households here receive housing benefit." "For the YMCA, it's a major source of income." "Many of their young residents rely on it to pay for their accommodation." "New arrivals usually live in the tower block, where they get hands-on day-to-day supervision." " Are you with me?" " Yes, I am." "Those who show they can live independently can apply for a YMCA flat." "Nat is moving into one today." " Hooray!" " Yay!" "Welcome to my little flat." "I'll just put my key on there for a minute." "It's a big break, after a very difficult start in life." "I was taken into care at the age of nine." "I was in at least 30 different foster homes, children's homes, childminders, et cetera, within the space of about three years." "Shower." "I love it!" "It's brilliant." "Due to moving around a lot, I never liked making friends, and kept myself to myself, and at one point I think I became a social recluse." "Nat has made friends in the YMCA." "SHE LAUGHS" "Helping her move are Molly and Dave." "This is why we're like a family." "It is a family." "Actually, it has been me and you, Nat, that are the mums of everyone." "Cos I'm 21 in September, and then...we'll just keep Nat's age quiet." "25." " It's her choice, there you go." " I'm old." " I know I'm old." " I feel old!" " SHE LAUGHS" "You feel old - try being 25!" "The YMCA in England and Wales offers accommodation and support to 10,000 mainly 16 to 25-year-olds who can no longer live at home or in care... but the rules are strict." "Residents must pay rent from their housing benefit or wages." "Fail to keep up and they're evicted." "They're also expected to behave... but not all do." "ALARM BLARES" "The fire alarm has gone off." "Whoo!" "It's been set off in the room of a resident who's on a final warning." "Come on, Connor!" "It weren't even my fault!" "Don't worry, we'll sort it." "Could be anything." "Go to the other side of Grace Crescent, please." "Connor is 16." "Sitting in me room, got in me new room, right?" "Him, he's got the spray, sprayed it into the sensor." "What?" "!" "Connor had to leave home earlier this year." "He's right at the bottom of the age range for the YMCA." "In the past 12 months, I've gone through a house, to a flat, to nowhere to live, to..." "living here." "Me nan got me them." "I go to me nan's when I get a bit annoyed." "Me nan calms me down" " I don't know how she does it." "I don't know how she copes." "She has to put up with me grandad as well!" "Me grandad isn't the most easiest person to put up with." "Me granddad's a lot like me - a bit hot-headed." "But, yeah." "That's how it is." "Connor's keyworker, John, finds him and fellow resident Jay back inside the building." "Yeah, definitely." "Can I ask why you set the bloody alarm off?" "I didn't know they were that sensitive, though." "Some of them are." "Some are sensitiver than others." "So, remember that when you're..." " I was giving everyone a workout, though." " What?" "I was giving everyone a workout - they don't get out as much." "I thought I was going to get done for this, and get kicked out." "You're not going to get done." "It was an accident." "It wasn't done on purpose, was it?" "John is trying to keep Connor on the straight and narrow." "He's playing up all the time." "He's rude to staff." "He's been given chance after chance after chance." "One more incident of any severity and he's out." "INDISTINCT CHATTER INSIDE" "Can I just go outside for a fag" " before I" " BLEEP - punch one of them pricks?" " Watch your language!" " No, I'm sorry, but how they" " BLEEP - talk to me." "I tried to go and get Sarah a job." "Her only condition was to keep her mouth shut about it." " She couldn't even" " BLEEP - do that, could she?" "That's why she hasn't..." "Molly frequently loses her temper which gets her into trouble with staff." "John is the only one who can calm her down." "I've gotten better because it's not happening as much as it used to." "There's actually two Mollys." "Molly who...we know and love." "And then there's the other Molly that comes out who's not so..." " clever, is she, and swears a lot..." " She's a bitch." " She's a bitch." "That's the only way to call me." "I think the other one's always going to be there, though." "SHE LAUGHS" "I'm talking about myself as though I'm two different people." "You are, sometimes." "It literally is, I am two different people." "Molly says that her life changed at the age of 17 when she was repeatedly attacked and sexually assaulted by a group of men." "It's something she didn't feel able to report to the police." "They'd threaten me family." "So..." "I put up with being beaten and raped by... about four or five of 'em." "It scares me to know that they're still there but..." "I've just..." "I don't care any more." "I've gone..." "I was scared, I was, but I've never really shown emotions like that." "I've always turned them into the easiest one which tends to be anger." "So..." "I was pretty angry." "Pretty angry." "Many of the young people in the YMCA have had difficult experiences." "Nat had her first child taken into care when she was 19." "She was depressed and unable to look after the baby properly." "Since then, she has had three more children." "The local authority decided she was unable to care for any of them." "They used to be on me wall." "Nat would like to see her children more." "For now, she just sees them at contact visits." "In between times, photographs are a way of remembering." "And of showing her love." "I use the camera at the contact centre to take pictures with." "It's just like a memory book for me and for her when she's older." "So I can give 'em to her when she's older." "So she knows that I was, like, there for her." "It's not something I like thinking about, the fact that they're not with me, so I try and push it out me mind." "But there are times where I do think about it a lot." "Mainly at night." "Some young people are carrying so much pain they don't know what to do with it." "It would disable all us lovely middle class people." "Patience is required, love is required and sometimes a long-term view." "You've got kids who are coming from 16 years' difficulty... it isn't going to be fixed in two weeks." "And Stoke's difficulties, caused by decades of decline, are not going to be fixed quickly, either." "Unemployment is above the national average and those who are in work earn less than the national average." "The collapse of those industries has caused almost unbearable damage, mostly really to people and their lives." "Whole communities have been utterly disrupted, in some cases for two and three generations, families who just haven't known what it's like to have regular employment." "And there is a real challenge as to how to keep life together without the rhythms of work." "But more daring entrepreneurs have set up business in Stoke." "The Emma Bridgewater Pottery, on the site of an abandoned factory, is doing well." "I came here because of the tradition." "And I've stayed here because of the tradition." "The skills and the history here still shine through." "What's most exciting of all is we are now managing to recruit young people and train them to keep those skills and those traditions." "Emma Bridgewater wants to give the most disadvantaged young people a break." "Tonight, she is at the YMCA running a workshop to make a banner for the Stoke Literary Festival." " We've got the YMCA." " Is this being used?" " She's really keen to do..." " Not at the moment." "Dave has come along." "He's copying his tattoo to put on the banner." "Me girlfriend's very creative and she said to me, you know," ""Give it a go, it's a good experience." I was like, "OK." ""I'll go on it."" "So...think I've made her proud." "There are around 900 young unemployed people in Stoke." "A few days after the workshop, Dave gets some good news." " How did you get on?" " I got it." " Did you?" " Yeah." " That's amazing." "The company is so impressed with him that they've offered him work." "They've said it's temporary. "When can you start?"" "I was like, "straight away." "We'll see you tomorrow, then."" " I was like, "Yeah!"" " Really?" "So you've got to go tomorrow?" " Mm." "It is the turning point in life now." "I can now say I've got a job, just need me own place or me own space," " like, in the flats." " Brilliant." "That's really, really good news." " Well done." " Cheers." "INDISTINCT CHATTER" "Connor has pushed things too far." "Go and get your stuff." "Well, go and get your stuff." "He's got drunk and threatened a member of staff." "He's being evicted." "In the lift." "Go and get your stuff." "Not messing with you." "Get in." "Let the police deal with him if he's going to be a little prick." " Molly." " Are you OK?" " BLEEP you." "You wish!" "Because he's got kicked out he's gone and completely rocked the machine." "And he keeps on kicking off, basically." "Being a dick." " Is that everything you're taking, mate?" " Yeah." " Come on, let's go." "I'll be back shortly, I'm giving Connor a lift." "YMCA chaplain Kev takes Connor to the council's housing office." "As he is 16, they are legally obliged to help him." "He's already regretting what's happened." "He's already admitting to me this is such a shame, and I feel that as well." "I feel really gutted for him." "He's a lovable rogue." "But there's got to be consequences." "It's the same for my family who live with me, my son." "There are boundaries and rules to live by." "And it certainly won't be the last we'll see of Connor." "The YMCA's boundaries and rules are frequently tested by Molly and her temper." "She was due to attend a girls only residential trip to the Peak District but has been told she can't go." "John steps in." "I know she's a little gobshite at times but I think she deserves a chance more than anybody." "So I've stamped my foot and said she's going." "To me it's not bad behaviour, it's just Molly being Molly." "I still see the original Molly when she first come in, not the Molly she is now." "John has known Molly since she first stayed at the YMCA two years ago." "She moved out, then got pregnant." "She was happy but it didn't last long." "'Second week of December I had an MRI on my son's brain down in Sheffield.'" "Got told, "Your son's got a brain haemorrhage." ""You can either continue with your pregnancy and there is an" ""extremely high chance he will be born either a vegetable or stillborn." ""Or you can terminate."" "Stopped his heart on the 18th of December." "That's all I've got left of him." "It's 6.30 and Dave is up for work at the pottery factory." "I feel proud of myself for going to work and making something of myself in society." "It gives me something to do." "I'm not sitting around all day doing nothing." "I feel more independent, more mature, more grown up." "But Dave's been turning up late for work." "It's something the company has seen before." "We've had some successes and some failures with young people coming from the YMCA." "To get back to work there are a whole lot of things you've got to get used to in terms of keeping regular hours, getting up and getting ready for work and turning up on time and turning up regularly." "It's an ongoing process." " Did it take you a while to get in today?" " No, not really." "Stuff's only as hard as you make it." "So..." "If you make it easy, it's going to be." "Dave may be sounding on top of things but if his timekeeping doesn't improve, he'll put his job at risk." "On the residential to the Peak District the girls are back from a long walk." "I think we've done more than 9-10 miles, you know." "I think we've done about 12, 13." " Considering you've got..." " Molly!" " I'm here." " How come you've got all this energy?" "I don't know." "MOLLY LAUGHS" "The trip is led by YMCA social worker Ellen, who is blind." "Molly took care of her on the walk." "She was looking out for me and telling me, "Put your foot to the left a little bit." ""Stay to the right a little bit." That's the caring side." "That's..." " She was amazing, actually." " Yeah, she was." "Ellen wants to discuss Molly's anger with her." "I got kicked out of anger management." "They just didn't know what to do." "Straight up, did not know what to do." " Did you find that you had a bit of power there?" " It was like..." "You had power then, didn't you?" "If they can't control you, that's like giving you power, isn't it?" "It is slightly." "It is trying to gain back control." " Control that you feel you're losing." " Yeah." "Cos not a lot of people can control me when I go off on one." "She didn't nearly come because to somebody else they saw her in a negative light." "Yet to us today, she showed a very different side, a very positive side." " Cheers, girls." " Cheers." "Hard, isn't it?" "There's trouble back at the YMCA." "Connor has put in an appeal against his eviction but it's been turned down." "He can't accept the news." " You just keep on saying this." " It's up to you." "That's all you keep on saying." "Just trying to get in the building, isn't he?" "But we're not letting him in." "Ring the police, the only thing we can do." "We tried talking to him but just keep telling him no." "Sad that when he was here he couldn't behave his self and now he's been kicked out, he wants us now." "That's the sad point, in't it?" " I'm running." " Stand here." "They can't do nothing." " They can't make you move." " They've kicked you out for a reason." "I want them to be happy and I want you to be happy and go on your way." "How can I be happy on the streets?" "I can't help you there." "You don't look like you're on the streets." "He's just been kicked out." "I stayed at me nan's." "I had a bath last night at me nan's." "You're going to have to go back to your nan's tonight." "I would advise you to move from here." "Cos we're going to keep getting called back, aren't we?" " I'll move over there." " No." " Where to then?" " Move from the street." " Move..." "Don't resist!" " Protesting." " Protesting." "Sometimes it's a maturing process." "When young people, sadly, may have to leave us..." "And it breaks me heart when they leave us." "..they might come back a second or third time and then get it and then go, "Oh, I see what you were saying."" "One of the messages I have to live by, and give young people, is the only person who can change something is me for me." "And as soon as I abdicate my future to somebody else" "I'm then lost at sea." "And then they get into a cycle of blame, don't they?" ""Daddy let me down." ""This council let me down." "The Government let me down."" "Ultimately, so what?" "Unless you take some responsibility for your own actions and behaviour, I can't do an awful lot for you." "Whilst the YMCA teaches residents self-reliance, in Stoke the charity and its young people would struggle without Government money." "It's worried that plans to cut housing benefits for 18-21 year olds will be confirmed in Wednesday's Budget." "If housing benefit was to go, just in YMCAs, there would be 1,400 people that could be made instantly homeless." "For those people coming from tougher backgrounds, the journey they have to take from, dare I say it, antisocial to social to jobs is a very long journey and if we don't put in support mechanisms such as" "housing benefits, they will go elsewhere and all of those negative experiences are going to go up, not down." "The Government says it spends more than £24 billion a year on housing benefit." "It says it doesn't want young people to slip into a life on benefits and would rather they get training and experience to build a career." "At Emma Bridgewater, Dave's job prospects are under threat." "He's missed two Fridays in a row." "He says he was ill, but the company has asked keyworker Michelle to go in and see them." "'They were asking me about whether we should be more lenient' and I told them that we need to treat them equally, all employees equally." "And it's a good opportunity, but he needs to be prepared for employment." " So what's happening?" " They've just laid me off now, so..." "LAUGHTER" "They're just leaving it." "They just laid me off, leaving it, so..." "SHOUTING" "# Imagine all the people... #" "You're a dick." "You're a dick." "Nat is struggling." "She's the mother of four young children and isn't allowed to care for any of them." "When you look at the future now, what do you see?" "I don't look at the future." "I take one day..." "I take each day as it comes." "There's no point in looking to the future." "Do you have any hopes?" "Do you think of an ideal scenario of what you'd like to see?" "Yeah, but I know it will never happen, so there's no point in thinking about it." " What will never happen?" " Me getting my kids back." "I know it's not going to happen, so there's no point in thinking about it." "I might as well just take one day at a time." "So how do you do that?" "With difficulty." "So..." "I..." "I don't know." "It's one of them wake up, survive, go back to bed things." "Nat's situation is not uncommon." "Stoke Council wants to stop young mothers like her losing more children." "It's funding the YMCA's Relationship Services team to tackle the problem." "'A lot of these mums have so many services and professionals in place' whilst they're pregnant, or when they've just had the child, and then ultimately, if that child is removed, they're left with a piece of paper with the recommendations" "as to what they needed to do to keep the child." "But with no support, no services..." "And where are they meant to go from there without a service like ours to direct them?" "Social workers Ellen and Jess are visiting Nat to offer her help." "Do you want a brew?" "Oh, go on, then." "I never say no to a cup of tea." "Give me two - it's been a hard day." "Careful, it's hot." " Have you got it?" " I have, my sweet." "Go on, tell us your story." "I fell pregnant at 17." "It was a one-night stand." "It wasn't planned at all." "I was a first-time mum." "Didn't even know how to change a nappy when I had him." "He was taken off me at ten-month-old." " I hold my hands up and admit I couldn't cope." " Yeah." " You recognise that?" " Oh, yeah." "I've been saying that for years." "And if they had given me that second chance with my second baby, put the support in place that I needed..." "I wouldn't be in this situation now." "Even though you don't have your children with you," " do you still feel that you're a mum?" " No." "No." "I'll be honest with you, I don't." "I just feel like a surrogate mum for someone... cos I can't come home to my kids." "Ellen and Jess don't want Nat to lose any more children to care." "They're encouraging her not to get pregnant again unless she can convince social services she can look after her child." "'We know that historical factors do have to come into play because' you always have to look at the history, but..." "I think there has to be room for a bit of movement cos people change, don't they?" "People do change." "I've got a sick note claim in place and I would like it to be closed down, please." "Molly has succeeded in making a big change." "No, I've got a job." "She had been on benefits because of depression while she was pregnant." "She's got a job in a takeaway." "'I hated being on a sick note because the stigma from it...'" " Done?" " Done!" "And I was starting to go off the rails a little bit, so I've just gone and cut it short... and completely turned it around." "How does that feel?" "Buzzing." "Buzzing." "Life in the YMCA moves on rapidly as its young people try to secure a future." "After being laid off by the pottery factory," "Dave says he's looking for another job." "It does make you realise how hard life actually is." "I just want to take every day as it comes and see where it takes me." "Connor is hoping to move back into the YMCA." "At the end of the day, you have your up days and you have your down days." "This, for me, is a down day." "But I'll make it back." "And Nat is giving away her baby things to other young mothers, but has not given up hope of a future with her own children." "The YMCA has been offering a helping hand to vulnerable young people for 170 years." "Today it says they need more help, not less, and is determined to keep going." "'Young people need a starting point." "'We've got to try and help them make choices for positive things." "'I want them to be thriving, to have fun, to have a purpose, to enjoy every day, that's what I want cos that's, like, don't we all want that?"