Young Foundation March 2009
48 Meet the Parents
Patrick
is 18 years old and has a 1-month daughter. Patrick has lived in hostel accommodation for the past two months, after his mother (a social worker) moved out of London following her remarriage. Although he has the room at the hostel, he spends much of his time at his girlfriend’s flat, helping with the childcare. Patrick has very little contact with his father, who he described as “well dodgy” and the inspiration for Patrick to be a good father “because he wasn’t.” Patrick has lived in Lewisham all his life, but would like to move away: Look, Lewisham looks like a slum. London is messed up. Knife crime and all. Everyone is caring a blade or worse. They raided a house round the corner from my Mum’s and found a load of Uzis. I mean there are some serious tooled up people around. Kids all carry knives. But people have nothing to do. Young people are bored. A few of hang around together and the next thing is that you’re beating up on someone. It then just blows up. He attributes many of the problems to boredom and the lack of provision of appropriate services for young people: They do summer schools and stuff, but they’ve got it wrong. They do the wrong stuff. Take me, I’m like most boys. I like spitting, rapping, putting down beats you know. They should have studios in the community. We’d do that. All the stuff they do is for young kids, parks and shit. Education, employment and aspirations Patrick left school when he was 16, with GCSEs in Religious Studies (B), Double Science (C&D), Graphics (C), Expressive Arts (B), Maths (D) and Resistant Materials (D). Patrick said that his experience of schools in Lewisham has not been good. He was suspended from primary school – “I was one of those kids who liked an audience and I’d clown around.” His mum removed him from secondary school in Lewisham and placed him in a smaller school in a village out of London. “That was good. I did good there. It was smaller and I enjoyed it.” Patrick considers himself to be the black sheep of the family – “All my family went to uni and all that. All my uncles and aunts and cousins all done well. They live in Tunbridge Wells and speak well. They are calm. Educated. Different.” On leaving school Patrick enrolled in a Hospitality and Catering Management course at Lewisham College. Patrick’s long-term goal is to be a chef. Patrick has an evening job as a pizza deliveryman. “I’ve worked since I was 13. Mostly in shops, but I get bored of just folding clothes all the time. I used to work at JD [Sports] and before that in Zara. But I just get bored. Delivering pizzas is okay, but you make more money being a bike courier. That’s what I want to do next.”
Annex one