Dylan had been in and out of foster care from the age of 10 constantly moving from placement to placement. At 17 he left care and was living in different hostels and on the streets. It was there that he was introduced to the world of drugs, drug dealing and crime.
But, as the situation got progressively worse, Dylan realised he needed to sort out his life. So he got on a train to the West Midlands with the hope of making a fresh start.
For a month he found himself still on the streets with his dog Wilson. But this time there were sympathetic people trying to help him. One of these was the joint founder of A Better Tomorrow Paul Gallagher.
Paul and his wife brought Dylan, now 18, food, warm clothes and other necessities. They told him about the abstinence and recovery programme at A Better Tomorrow and offered him a place in one of ABT’s supported houses.
Over the next 12 weeks the ABT staff and volunteers – many of them on their own recovery journey – guided Dylan through the 12-step recovery programme including group sessions, mental health and wellbeing guidance and all backed up by a packed schedule of activities.
Dylan has now started to look forward to the future. He’s learnt new skills from the activity groups offered by ABT including cooking, fishing, football, horse riding at the Cavalier Centre and the small woods project.
He is also looking at joining maths and English courses to give him qualifications for a future career.
The various classroom-based groups have helped him develop coping mechanisms to deal with his past experiences and he has started to look more closely at his own characteristics, both positive and negative.
“Since arriving at ABT, I’ve started to put my life back together and started looking towards the future in a positive way for the first time in my life.”
“I’ve met a lot of people from different backgrounds that I can relate to and who have been kind to me and taught me various skills.
“I am grateful for this opportunity within the project and would like to say thank you to all the staff who support clients every day.”
