Ricky Gleeson is asking the South Shields community for support, as he hopes to help ex-offenders and people at risk of offending to turn their lives around.
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00:00 So a quick piece talking about our struggle to find any significant funding for the project that we're running in the South Shields area that we're hoping to use to cut crime and antisocial behaviour, especially amongst young people.
00:14 We do that through running a vintage clothing store. We use those young people at risk of offending the staff.
00:19 And then we use the proceeds to provide one-to-one physical training, boxing lessons, one-to-one coaching and various other forms of practical support.
00:29 We also teach design and manufacturing of the clothes that we're then going to sell on.
00:33 And that's it really. And I'm not sure why, but I can't seem to put that into good enough words to attract any funding that other sort of charities get, which is probably on me.
00:45 But it's frustrating because I know those methods work. I'm an ex-young offender myself.
00:49 By the time I was 21, I had 42 convictions. I've been to four different young offenders institutions around the country.
00:56 I spent 18 months sleeping rough during a 10-year cycle of homelessness. I was a drug addict. All sorts of things went wrong for me.
01:04 So I then got fit in my mid-20s and that kept me out of trouble. And then once I'd been out of trouble long enough, I got into the armed forces, which I'm on duty now.
01:12 I served 12 and a half years in the Royal Navy. I won three awards. I set up things. I found a load of new skills.
01:19 And yeah, yeah, I left, but now I'm back in and I was in the Royal Navy and now I'm in the British Army.
01:25 So I know those methods work. And I think it's really important for the area that we do manage to get some funding because we've just taken charge of a three-story building on a market square that we want to turn into a youth centre of sorts.
01:38 And a design and manufacturing sort of school and also a boxing gym where we're going to do all of our training in-house with the volunteers that come through and work in the shop with me.
01:50 So yeah, if anybody could help, even tradesmen helping us with the building or if any local businesses feel that they could give us some support, that would be great. Thank you.