“You gave me a space I can come to and feel safe. I’ve only been here for like six months, I think. But in those six months, I’ve just had like a better outlook on life.
“I like the activities we do at Clock Tower, I made a lot of good friends around here who are leading me in the right direction. I got a lot of support from my caseworker, like she’s helped me out a lot… it’s just a lovely place to come to. I feel welcome, and they’re giving me a lot of opportunities to help myself and make myself a better person.
“I was really bad on drugs and stuff like that. Me having casework and stuff she’s like given me good insight on how to stop. She’s like been engaging with a different type of groups to get me help. They’re just giving me so much praise, giving me more confidence to actually stop and give it up.
“I’ve made nice friends too, I’ve met people who I relate to. We’re all here to help each other, you know what I mean? If someone’s feeling down, I’ll go talk to them, see if they’re alright and ask how they’re doing.
“It’s just a nice place to go to keep you off the streets. You get all sorts of help, like free food, shower, and you get a lot of support with housing as well, like they’re really forward on helping you as much as they can. My friend came here and in like the first like couple months, he got a place just from the people here. Getting hold of other services and stuff like that… so there’s a lot opportunities if you come here.
“Before, my mental health… that was like the worst thing I had. I was feeling suicidal and depressed. I just felt like I was alone, like I didn’t have anyone. That was probably the most difficult thing, dealing with my mental health, thinking, “Am I going to move on from this, or am I going to be homeless for the rest of my life?” That was just making me have some crazy thoughts. It got to the point where I was just telling people that if I can’t get housing, I am going to end my life. It wasn’t like a blackmail thing, I just couldn’t deal with it. I was sleeping in a car park on cardboard and stuff. I had nothing. I thought I had friends, but they showed their true colours. I used to have people sleeping on my sofas when they were homeless, but when it was me asking for help, there was no one there. That’s why I felt proper alone.
“Without this place, I’d probably be in jail or dead. It’s that simple, I’d be in jail or dead. This place has actually saved me, like proper saved me. Before I was coming here, I was taking drugs a lot, I was drinking, and obviously, in this place, if you come in intoxicated, you’ll get asked to leave. That just made me want to stop, stop going out, getting drunk all the time, getting arrested, stuff like that. And without this place, I’d be doing nothing with my life, just getting even more and more depressed. When I come here, I have my caseworker to talk to, I have the staff and volunteers to talk to… if I’m feeling down, everyone’s open to listen, and I just really appreciate it. It’s been really nice coming here, and I hope it never shuts down, and I hope when I move on from here, I can come back and start helping out others – that’s my main goal.
“My caseworker thinks I could be a good youth worker. I’m just trying to get a good relationship with the staff… might even be a youth worker here when I move on. I love it here, it’s made me understand people’s environments, and I relate to it. If I can help them in any way, then I’d love to do that.”
Martin, 20 (he/him)
