"So Tony, do you think you were really a product of the system?" "Yes and I know I was and I'm not ashamed to say so." "Yes I come from a broken home and I lived in a dysfunctional family environment where my stepfather was violent towards me and my mother."
His adolescent years
"Were spent surrounded by dysfunctional young people just like himself. And his start in life was out of his control. he didn't choose to put himself in that situation it was just how it was." he could have been born into a completely different family and had a complete different outcome but in his own words it is what it is and it was what it was.
"What were the contributing factors to your poor behaviour Tony?"
"It was down to personal problems I had to deal with in the various homes and at school. Trying to hide one of my problems just made things much worse, some members of staff were sympathetic towards me and others were not so."
"What was it like and how did you cope?"
He replied "think of what it must be like in hell... very badly"
From a hostel where he had three meals a day, laundry facilities, money monitoring and emotional support to a bedsit. Prior to the hostel Tony spent two years in a community home which came to an end when they could no longer manage his behaviour. And for the first time there was nobody telling him what to do what time to go to bed what time to be in it was great. He tells me now looking back on things he was so ill-equipped without the necessary skills to begin to try and live successfully and independently. He had no idea because he was never taught and things quickly began to spiral out of control
"A product of the system from a child to adult hood living in care and being raised by the system his empathy allows him to connect at a very different level than most sharing his story and experiences weather good or bad"
Historically the Gateland project has always worked with troubled young people. We do however have a number of interests in other areas that we feel we could contribute to by diversifying but still keeping our project ethos : Integrity, Clarity, Continuity and Empathy
