I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the power in my life today that enables me to live life on life’s terms. To my dear Mum and Dad, thank you for your unconditional love and providing me with my needs whilst growing up. I acknowledge today the hard work you committed yourselves to, the multiple jobs you did in order to keep me looked after, how ungrateful and selfish I was in the process. My brothers and sisters, thank you for the mixture of tough love and tolerant love, I learnt lessons from each one of you. To my first ever partner who was the catalyst for my change of thinking, thanks, you know who you are. Mr Green, the young offender’s institution officer who showed concern for my life at a time when I myself was not able to, thank you. Although you never see the change in me, some of the young people I’ve worked with to date have benefited from the said change. James Old, the prisons interventions officer that invested in me and taught me a lot of what I know today, you have been integral to Community Interventions coming about and all that we do, thank you. I would like to express a big thank you to two charitable organisations, in particular, Safe Ground and Charlton Athletic Community Trust who have been significant to my transition from custody to mainstream society. In closing, I would like to thank every individual and organisation that has supported my change, you know who you are and also all the young people that have allowed me to be of service within their communities.

Michael Brown