Ted's story

“The dad that raised me was an alcoholic, there was this one time I got bullied and I came home and an argument broke out where he was drunk. And that's when he ended up revealing that I was adopted at the age of two and my actual parents are dead.

So that made me angry and I kind of left home. It didn't take me long to get picked up by a boy and he took me in like family. That was kind of the start of my County Lines journey.

I went to jail when I was 13. I ended up getting beaten up on my first day. I got put in hospital where they broke my jaw.

If I hadn't found ATF, I generally think I would have been dead or doing 14 years in jail.”

Ted is supported by the project ‘Positive Futures’ funded by Make Some Noise, at ATF Southend. Positive Futures is a life skills and employment pathways programme for vulnerable and marginalised young people.

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