Stories
Waseem’s Story - in his own words
“Not many organisations would have given me the chance due to my criminal record. I’m grateful that they allowed me to volunteer. It gave me a purpose”
Waseem, Volunteer Befriender
Waseem has been supported by Improving Lives since 2018. He has longstanding mental health issues arising from a sustained period of trauma and abuse as a child growing up in care. Waseem went to prison as a teenager where he stayed for 12 years. Coming out of prison was a huge culture shock. He had no support over the first few months and felt that he had been set up to fail. However, his Probation worker referred him to Improving Lives, a pivotal moment in his journey.
When he was first released Waseem was anxious and hypervigilant when interacting with others. He struggled to make eye contact and would look everywhere else rather than at the person he was talking to. He noted that in prison you only socialise with a very small group of people, but in the wider community “you have to be able to interact with a lot of different people at a moment’s notice.”
Waseem paid close attention to his Improving Lives Support Worker and used him as a role model for how to engage with the wider world.
“I watched the (Support Worker) and saw how he would do things. It helped me to interact with others socially. It helped me fit back into society. Every three years you spend in prison you only mature one year. You can go in at 17 and come out 12 years later still thinking like a 17-year-old. It helped me to mature a lot.”
Waseem was deeply motivated to help others and had embraced opportunities whilst he was in prison to develop his skills. This included volunteering as a mentor to other young men. In recent months, Improving Lives introduced a telephone befriending role, to provide additional support for isolated service users during the coronavirus lockdown. The Improving Lives team recognised that Waseem had the right qualities and attitudes to deliver this important role. Waseem took part in an induction training session for the role, and he then completed some online training courses covering mental health awareness, gambling and online gaming.
Waseem was matched with a service user and began to offer befriending support. He noted that it took a little time to settle into the role:
“It was very difficult at first, talking on the phone, not knowing them, trying to get them to trust me. They had more complex issues than I’ve experienced. But I tried to find common ground. It took about a month, but now it’s going excellent.”
Waseem is very happy as a telephone befriender and has taken on a second mentee. Moreover, he is grateful to Improving Lives for giving him this opportunity to develop his skills and support others.
“Not many organisations would have given me the chance due to my criminal record. I’m grateful that they allowed me to volunteer. It gave me a purpose.”