Our Stories: Meet Nee

“I’ve been here six years now. I’ve worked overseas, travelling the world. I was a rugby coach, a football coach. But I always wanted to do something to give back. I got into this because if there’d been something like this when I was a kid, opportunities would have come my way. Things could have been more positive. 

I’m an estate girl myself, from the Midlands. I was brought up around a lot of crime and drugs. A lot of my friends were either in prison or in a grave very early on in their lives. Lucky for me and my sister and brothers, we came out of that world, but it was hard. 

We have a lot of challenges with the young people we work with. A lot of them come from traumatic backgrounds and there’s shoplifting, county lines, carrying knives and stuff like that. But we meet you where you are. We’re not judging you from your past. You’re the person you are when you come through the doors and we don’t care what you’ve done before. People make mistakes and we’re all entitled to second, third, fourth chances. 

That echoes throughout our team, and I think that’s really important. Everyone’s so different, from different places. And I think that’s why it works. For 9 people to impact the community as much as we do, and to touch the hearts and souls and impact the lives of so many kids on a weekly basis – that’s huge. 

For me, to be able to create an opportunity for young people to change their path in life is really important. We all work really, really hard. But the reward isn’t through finances, the reward is through the kids that we work with. And I sleep well at night knowing I’m doing a good thing.” 

Reestablish empower young people to discover and actively pursue opportunities to develop their potential and positively improve their lives, whilst enhancing the lives of others. They run drop-in’s, mentoring and community support, group work, trips, holiday camps and expeditions. Leeds Community Foundation funding has supported a range of their activities, including holiday clubs and work on the organisation’s strategic development.

If you want to play your part in supporting brilliant local Community Organisations like Reestablish, learn how you can support us, or reach out at info@leedscf.org.uk.