The Voices of Endure

The 'Voices of Endure' is a blog about exactly that ...

It will follow the stories of the young people we work with and give them an opportunity and platform to tell their stories in there truest and rawest forms.

Egos on social media are huge. People are more concerned with how they feel about a post, than they are about what happened to cause the person to write it.

I have taken a decision to start with a snippet of who I am and all that defines me and why I started 'Endure Mentoring'.

My Voice Pt 1 ..

To some I am a youth worker, to others a friend, a sister and a daughter, an extremely proud god mother. A mentor and role model, a shoulder a Councillor and confidant, a voice at the end of the phone at 2am picking up the pieces of yet another break up. A domestic abuse victim who suffered in silence.  On paper I am a sexual abuse victim yet I prefer survivor. A messed up child, delinquent teen, angry, threatening, aggressive, confrontational. Likely to leave school at sixteen with no GCSE’s. Apparently exploited to sell drugs by known gang nominal’s despite stating to social services on more than one occasion I was a willing participant. The granddaughter of a well known Spanish prostitute and related to the leaders of one of the most notorious gangs in Birmingham.

One statement alone became the most defining statement of my life, and although caused by heartbreaking circumstances has inspired everything I have become. On the 13th July 2014 at 9:45pm I became ‘The cousin of the 7th person stabbed to death in the capital in 2014’. From that moment onwards I decided it was my job to make a change and the idea for 'Endure' came to life.