SED*8 Magazine

The Team

Joel Antoine Wilkinson – Joel is a young man from Islington with plans for the future, Big Plans! He was an assistant designer for Sed*8, helping to create our logo and define our image. Check out his own designs and photography at www.wealthofmind.co.uk ‘Think Rich People.’

James Adabie – James hails from Ghana via the US where he studied a BA in Fine Arts and Design Art. He has exhibited work in galleries and won awards for his ability to tell the stories of life and people through his images. “Show me a face and I will give you the story of life, human kind, and the truth.”

Emmanuel Cole – Emmanuel has had a few business ventures in the last couple of years. He works with the charity Kids Company, and was inspired to work with Sed*8 because ‘we’re fighting for the same cause – to promote youth culture as it is and the awareness of talent and positive role models in London.’ He talked to South London’s MCs Big Mix and Mad Max to explore the tenuos relationship between urban music and the media.

Rob Khan – Rob Khan works as a freelancer for the BBC in specialist music and entertainment as well as being a bonafide student. In addition he is a HUGE music fan and often spends the majority of his working days trawling for new music and then banging on about it to whoever cares to listen. He enjoys food, travel, exclamation marks! and all things street culture.

Saifur Rahman – Saif is an energetic, enthusiastic and self motivated man from Hackney, East London. Taking time out from his dreams of becoming a civil engineer he has been toying with the idea of photography. Drawn to architectural images Saif loosened it up for this issue of Sed*8 and took to Trafalgar Square to photograph the Barclay’s Freestyle Running Championship 2009.
Tip from the top – ‘Dont hate just love.’

Corinne Scotland - Corinne Scotland is an East-London born lady who left to grow up in the wilds of Essex.  A dreamer, thinker and believer Corinne loves to write lyrics and compose music, plays guitar and piano. She performs her own stuff in local bars and coffee shops. She reckons you won’t get anywhere if you don’t keep pushing new doors. And that is what got her here working with us at Sed*8.

Thiago Nunes Correa – Spotted in a cloud formation on an otherwise cloudless day, Thiago is cool like circuits to light switch fetishists. Seemingly random and impossible to prove perhaps but startlingly acurate none-the-less. He’s a Brazilian-born Londoner complete with pretensions of being a professional writer – thus explaining his involvement with Sed*8.

Linda Ombroisine Diaz – ‘We all start off at zero and our aim in life is to get to 100 percent.’ Linda is a free-spirited person on a quest to realise her potential. She likes listening to other people’s life stories and tries to incorporate what she learn sinto her own life.
She currently works with an organisation called Unspent Convictions, which empowers young offenders with the skills to run political campaigns while looking after her brand new baby girl. Congratulations!

Monfia Phillips – Monifa is 17 year old student who- in 3.5 years- plans on being a chemical physicist. When not being geeky however, she loves listening to some Jill Scott and traveling round London on her slowly fading free Oysterness. Monifa describes Sed*8 as a dysfunctional family, ‘jokes yet professhh’. She loves working on film and despite her keen eye plans on keeping photography only as a hobby – ‘You should try it. Yummy stuff.’

Raziya Gulam – Hailing from Seven Kings, Raziya aspires to be many things from artist to journalist, diplomat to curator.  On her path to one or all of these things she investigated the proliferation of takeaway restaurants around schools in the capital for Sed*8.

Juliet Rudman - With an overactive imagination Juliet Rudman wants to be an abundance of things, from a journalist or photographer to a festival owner. In a perfect world Juliet would live in a travelling perma-festival. Ehm..what else? She can lick her elbow and knows a lot of random facts and bad jokes.
Top Tip: ‘Only carry around the baggage you can wear on your back.’

Amrit Matharoo – At 17 Amrit has lived in east London all her life, a place where, she says, hidden treasures meet world-class shopping. After visiting some galleries in the area she decided to investigate how easy it is to be recognised as an amateur artist and find a space to exhibit in.
‘I sees art as a great way to express yourself and see how others feel and that’s why I love it.’

So you may have noticed we’ve been away for a pretty long time….but fear not…we are getting back on the road….we are if you like getting ‘back to life’ ha ha ha errrrm ha…anyways classic choon to celebrate this below!

Edge, the vocational education foundation has launched a new skills initiative in conjunction with London 2012. Looking behind the scenes at the inspirational men and woman responsible for creating the Olympic Games, Edge is pioneering a new skills initiative inspired by the impending Games.

‘Making the Games’ showcases some of the many interesting and surprising roles involved in creating the Olympic Games to inspire young people, and their teachers, to think differently about practical and vocational careers. By following a handful of skilled professionals who are passionate, ambitious and successful, they hope to change perceptions and raise the stature of practical learning within the UK.

Visitors to the www.edge.co.uk/projects/making-the-games can view a diverse range of profiles, from construction workers to chefs, engravers to film crew.. If you’re interested just click on a profiled career where you have the opportunity to send questions to the individuals profiled and to follow their twitter updates as their work progresses. Or get involved through the Twitter page, where there’s regular competitions, games and Olympic multi-media content, as well as personal updates from those making the games happen!

Plus there’s a chance to win a £50 music voucher each week till the end of June. All entrants in these weekly competitions will go into a grand prize draw for a trip to the Olympic Park for a group of ten in October.

More information on the Get Set network and how to join: http://getset.london2012.com/en/join-us/register

by Rob Khan

“I’ve never voted”…”Nor have I!” said two of my university friends recently. “Why not?” I barked back at them… To which I received a shrug of the shoulders, a quick smile and a rapid switch of conversation to the more important matter of how you can buy lookalike designer bags in Tesco’s for  twelve quid.

I’m concerned. We are living in age where Cheryl Cole’s new teeth can draw more attention then the future of our country and it is the exact people who should be concerned with it, that have no interest whatsoever. For most young people Gordon Brown is about as relevant as learning Latin or any other bygone activity. We face a real battle in getting young people interested in politics. Time after time we see politicians trying to play it cool, be young (and maybe sometimes a little too free!) Alll so often it doesn’t work and often doesn’t work on a mammoth scale. I point your reference to Neil ‘the rockstar’ Kinnock’. For those to young to remember YouTube it!

Everything to do with the UK Political system is outdated, from the way politics works to how we actually have to vote. Perhaps in order to engage young people we need to look at the ways in which we can vote. I know for a fact that given the facility, young people would be more then happy to vote using their mobile, simultaneously listening to their favourite tunes while also on twitter and on the move all at the same time. Rather than plodding down to their local church hall to place an ‘x’ in a box.

If politicians really want to re-engage young people and turn them into active young voters then what is needed is not a six week campaign on facebook, but a real concerted effort to engage young people in politics, starting with grassroots education. So, politicians across the land please remember young people have views, they matter, they are real so listen… And if your lucky they may even playlist your campaign with some decent songs, so even if you don’t win at least you might sound a bit cooler to us kids!

Growing Up Hackney is part of a collaboration between Iniva, Discover Young Hackney, and the Hackney Museum, who ran a 5-week course where a group of young people from 17-21 had the opportunity to explore and rediscover their domicile of Hackney – the music and arts venues and its vibrant community.
Taking inspiration from photographer Dennis Morris’ photographs of the community he grew up in, they collaborated with artists Othello de’Souza and Obinna Nwosu.  Their work was on show as part of the Growing Up Black exhibition at the Hackney Museum throughout January 2010.

ALVIN CARPIO
Pr…Pr… Pleease Draw Me
“This guy is a character. The 30-second photo-shoot and the 2 minutes trying to convince him to take the shot were unforgettable. He wouldn’t let us take the photo unless I gave him a toke of my cigarette. If I didn’t sacrifice my cigarette, I wouldn’t have got this shot. What makes it so powerful to me is, not only the way he’s desperately smoking, but the hint of his eye-ball through his glasses.”

ALVIN CARPIO
A Rare Show of Teeth
“It’s funny how photography can bring laughter to life. This man was sitting with an intimidating, if not, protective stare. He sat very still while smoking. But once I started taking photos of him, he lifted his hand to cover his face. Then out of no where he began to chuckle almost crazily creating a hilarious spectacle! It really brightened my day to capture this moment. Everyone else enjoyed it too.”

NICOLETTE MILLER
New Approach

CYNTHIA EDO
Two Girls
Hackney’s got taste and style.

WORDS// Nicole Charles

You make me stink of aromas that remind me of exactly how weak I am,

You’ve manipulated my senses to bring me to the consensuses I’m senseless without you.

When I lay my head to rest I crave you in my bed I crave you in side of me,

You consume a with desire that tightens my chest and yet I abreast you,

I reach out my hand time and time again, and every time I grant you time I wish I could turn back the hands of time to that time I didn’t need you, to that time I didn’t, rely on you,

You’re killing me with your love and yet my body screams for your touch, that gentle elevating, steaming, exuberating touch

I inhale your negativity because you console my insecurities; you secure me with your smell,

You know what I’m saying without me saying a thing it’s our understanding,

I call a shotter on someones phone that ain’t my own

‘cause I only got £10 for a cockle of dro and I’m pay as you go so, you know I’ll always find a way for you to stay in my body for month.

To give me high blood pressure, paranoid schizophrenia, lung cancer, not tomention, dry mouth, munchies and the inability to even speak.

Somehow I find the money for you, even when I can’t afford to get on the tube,

but I ain’t a crack head,

I ain’t an addict

Weed is righteous!?!

Words//Juliet Rudman

“She should be dead anyway, shouldn’t she?” An ex said this to me after finding out that my disabled sister had been in intensive care. This extreme and careless remark coming from an essentially nice person is indicative of the problems of ignorance surrounding disability. Although this is clearly a ridiculous example, it is to some extent understandable that people so often have the wrong idea about disability. We’re not taught about it at school and many people lack any kind of knowledge or experience of it.

Studies show that the biggest factor in attitudes is whether or not people are closely related to a disabled person and it’s clear there is a need for some kind of public debate. This is the responsibility of the media: providing a widely-accessible platform on which disabled people can represent themselves.

Earlier this year an attractive young presenter called Cerrie Burnell was given a job fronting a show on Cbeebies. Cerrie has a slight but visible disability; she was born without one of her hands. Cerrie said in an interview with the BBC that she hoped that her appearances on Cbeebies would help parents to raise the issue of disability with their children. It is important that there are figures like Cerrie out there who welcome the natural inquisitiveness of children to discover and ask questions before they form any kind of solid assumptions. Unfortunately her appearance has brought to the light the fact that it is not children but adults who have a problem with disability. The channel received several complaints from parents that Cerrie was ‘scaring their children‘. Instead of wanting their children to understand difference these parents seemed to want disability brushed under the carpet. No doubt these same people spend their Decembers writing to pantomimes to complain about the terrifying dwarves used in their productions of Snow White.

Image// BBC

One of television’s most impressionable outlets, the reality TV show, has begun to incorporate disability beyond the usual ‘freak show’ documentaries about the world’s tallest or shortest people. The production company Endemol took the first tentative steps with Pete Bennett in

Big Brother 2007 and Geoff Armstrong in Shipwrecked of the same year.

A benefit of reality TV is that it forces viewers to see disabled people as no different, no better or worse than anyone else. Whilst Pete did well and went on to win the show, ADHD sufferer Geoff became an outsider in the game and ended up leaving early.

The shows managed to raise certain points about disability. It is important with some less obvious or lesser known illnesses such as Tourettes Syndrome and ADHD that people are aware of them in order to understand that there can be medical reasons for some behaviours. Pete was a well-liked character who managed to raise the status of Tourettes.

Disabled contestants provide a means for people to ask questions or to gain understanding of disability. They also gives young disabled people a role model, or even just a sign that they too can make it past the misconceptions and barriers that they may feel stuck behind. The importance of this cannot be underestimated. In an interview with the BBC’s

Ouch website Pete said that although his Tourettes made him who he is, when he was younger it had disabled him as he ‘didn’t know how to handle it.’

There are also shows that deal with the disabled specifically. Recently there was Britain’s Missing Top Model, a show that sought to challenge the ideal ‘body beautiful‘. Coming up later in the year Gok Wan seeks out disabled contestants for his latest series of How To Look Good Naked and the last series of X Factor featured a young singer with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism.

There have been criticisms of this kind of programming focusing on contestant’s disabilities. BMTM has been accused of being a ‘freak show’ and Simon Cowell’s project Britain’s Got Talent was recently accused of exploiting a woman with learning difficulties. As with the blind eye that often seems to be turned to racism towards Muslims there are some kind of prejudices which appear to be deemed acceptable. There are Facebook groups named anything from ‘midgets rock’ to ‘midgets freak me out’. Even though I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by disabilities there was a time when I thought that dwarves had been invented for fairy stories, but once you’ve left primary school and have some experience of the world outside of Disney and school dinners then you should be able to come to terms that some people are quite short.

On the other hand, people with disabilities, especially in the context of the media, can sometimes be said to exploit their condition for material gain; is there any harm in this, and is it no more heinous than a woman exploiting her sexual desirability to curry a man’s attention? This is a question raised a lot with disabled comedians; is it acceptable for them to use their disability to get laughs and if so does that mean it’s okay for everybody else? It seems to be an easy question, of course it’s okay to use your situation for comedy, that’s what most comedians do. If an able-bodied comedian dedicated the same amount of time to the subject it probably would be offensive; just as Chris Tucker can make jokes about growing up in a black neighbourhood in a way that wouldn’t seem as funny if Ed Byrne said it.

In my experience there are two main problems with the way people react to someone with a disability. These are either to overreact and create an awkward situation, or to under-react and pretend not to notice the disability or even ignore the person altogether. This second point is the major problem with the media in its coverage of disability. So often, fear of offending people means that whilst there are disabled characters in programs, their disability is virtually invisible; as if programmers lack the confidence to approach the surrounding issues. Blindly ticking off a certain quota of one-dimensional disabled characters is more insulting than having a character react, and be reacted to, in a realistic way.

Consider Eastenders; since Phil’s son Ben arrived on the scene his hearing aid has been virtually unmentioned. The child is played by a hearing actor and the whole thing was a pretty pointless exercise in box ticking. A couple of years down the line and Eastenders are finally ready to tackle the disabled story line with the birth of Billy and Honey’s daughter Janet. The story was well researched, with Billy and Honey’s words coming straight from the mouths of real parents of disabled children. It challenged the notion that parents automatically know what to do and how to feel when a disabled child is born. The point was reiterated that disability is not something that happens to certain people, it can happen to anyone at any stage in their life. The characters took viewers on an important journey of understanding.  The show has also recently introduced the character Adam Best who uses a wheelchair, he is played by David Proud an actor born with spina bifida. In conjunction with Equity and Spotlight, the actor’s union, the BBC is launching a directory of actor’s with disabilities in the coming months.

Understanding disability should not be seen as just a job for the PC brigade. We should consider that disability as it is known today only began with the industrial revolution and cities were built up in the vision of the able-bodied. When companies cite unreasonable costs for altering their businesses, we must think about the fact that it is only since society was made this way that disabled people have been discriminated against. Refusing to build a ramp for cost purposes is tantamount to putting a sign on the door stating “no blacks, no Irish, no disabled”.

Decades after discrimination was deemed socially unacceptable, this kind of invisible prejudice is still going on. For people to accept the adjustments necessary to give disabled people the same rights as everyone else they need to understand in the first place that they are needed.

WORDS// Amrit Matharoo /

Amrit Matharoo looks at how the internet age is changing the way we look at art.

I visited the annual MA art show at Central Saint Martin’s with very high expectations. This is the institute associated with some of the biggest names in art and design. Fashion designers Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen, the product designer James Dyson and the artist Peter Blake all began their careers here. The exhibition was based in the actual workspace used by the artists, in the middle of central London with breathtaking views of the capital from the window.
London is renowned for its truly eclectic mix of traditional galleries and the show inspired me to investigate the British art scene. I began to wonder how art is affected by the recession and the Internet and decided to explore whether traditional or online galleries are better for artists exhibiting at the beginning of their careers.

‘One Fine Day’, Oil on Canvas, Ann Bartrum

Helen Sumpter the deputy visual arts editor at Time Out, says, “It’s important for an emerging artist that their art is seen by curators, potential buyers and art commissioners. Exhibiting in a gallery is the established way of achieving this.” Ann Bartrum, a recent St Martins graduate who came to study in London from Baghdad, agrees, “Exhibiting is very important. It is vital to have a project to be working for as opposed to working in isolation, although you also have to be self-directed and motivated”.
Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate Modern and one of the most respected curators in the art industry, has pointed out that the huge numbers attracted to big exhibitions shows how popular art is with the British public. In 2008 the Klimt exhibition at the Tate Liverpool attracted 200,000 visitors and Francis Bacon attracted 230,000 visitors at the Tate Britain. This shows that there is still a huge interest in visiting galleries.
The economic climate has also had an adverse effect on the art market, making it harder for new artists to break through. Sumpter feels that “the market may not be good for art because more exciting things happen during recession. More spaces are available to do this in with shops becoming empty.” In Leytonstone, a former Woolworths store was transformed into an art gallery this summer for the Leytonstone Arts Trail, one of east London’s largest collective exhibitions. The gallery had a lot of support from local residents, artists and the council. It is a great example of the sorts of opportunities that become available during economic downturns.
In addition to these pop-up spaces, there has been a huge increase in the popularity of online galleries, such as The Saatchi Gallery (www.saatchigallery.co.uk/yougallery) and Murmur Art (www.murmurart.com). The Saatchi Gallery is unique in that it offers artists the opportunity to display work for free and sell it for no commission. You can pick up a chalk piece by artist Paul Rooney for £50. Saatchi are also running a competition for users of the website where they can grade the artwork, which promotes artists and their work. According to Sumpter, online galleries are “a cheaper way to try and sell work” than by exhibiting in a real gallery.
Will Conibear, a former journalist and the co-founder of murmurart.com, tells me that an online gallery “can have a really positive impact on the careers of young artists and introduces a new and wider audience into contemporary art.” Conibear had many reasons for choosing to create an online gallery. With the spread of fast broadband connections the website could reach a wide audience and he wanted to create a business that introduced art to a potentially limitless number of people. Through it he promotes and supports exceptional up and coming artists.
Bartrum would definitely consider displaying her work online in the future. And Serota points out “Tate Online is the most successful arts website in the country with 18 million visits per year”.
There is a lot of global interest, in particular from the US, says Conibear “This shows us that it certainly helps to get some oversees exposure. Antony Dominici, another recent St Martins graduate agrees “It’s a great way, especially for collectors. I like to look at work and it’s a good way to see art especially if you can’t go to shows and everything’s there online”.
An online gallery opens a gateway for many buyers at the click of a mouse with internet shopping standard practice for most people nowadays.
So does this mean traditional galleries are under threat? Conibear admits that “art is there to be seen in the flesh and the Internet will only play a certain role in the market, it will never be the main way.”

Maureen Paley runs a real rather than an online gallery, but her success story is far from a traditional one. She began her art career from her living room in the heart of London’s east end and has become one of the UK’s most innovative and impressive curators. She has promoted and showed art in the UK and the US and launched some of the UK’s biggest names in art such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Rebecca Warren, and Gillian Wearing.
According to Bartrum, “Exhibiting is very important. Committed gallery support is what most emerging artists would like as the very fact of the support provides a guaranteed outlet and a marker that there is interest in you.” However, it is still difficult to be recognised as a talented artist because “there are far more artists than galleries to represent them”.
Stephen Ford, who specialises in contemporary painting and drawing and gets his inspiration from David Hockney. “I don’t think anything is guaranteed, but (exhibiting in a gallery) would certainly seem to be the best way to go about it. Surely the purpose of making art is to exhibit it anyway?”
In defence of online galleries Conibear points out that the two types “do a very different job, an incomparable job. Good galleries will always be the prime support for artists. For most artists finding a good gallery to represent them and their work is the Holy Grail. And rightly so. Where online can be better for supporting artists at the start of their careers; providing a cheap but quality platform for them to get their work noticed and to start selling to collectors.”
Art is something that can unify people. Art has no language barriers so many people can relate to it. Art deserves to be seen by the masses. But some people find it difficult to visit galleries so for them online may be the only option. Most artists hope to sell their work so selling via online galleries has its benefits, but there remains no doubt to get the real feeling of art, it has to be experienced in the flesh.

WORDS//Corinne Scoltand

IMAGES//James Adabie

You’re walking down the street, minding your own business, wondering what’s for dinner tonight. Then out of the corner of your eye you see him. He’s wearing layers of crumpled up clothing, smelling like he hasn’t showered in weeks, holding a plastic cup and begging passers-by for change. What do you do? The tight cynic in you says no way, “he’ll only spend it on drugs and booze…” Enter Good Conscience: “Maybe he is genuine; maybe he really doesn’t have any food, and needs a few pennies to get by tonight. If I don’t spare my change, who will?” You walk on by with mixed emotions.

Most Londoners prefer giving to charities to dealing personally with homeless people on the street. But, if beggars weren’t there to remind us of their presence (and more often than not to make us squirm) would we just forget that homelessness even existed?

Monday 26th October, 12pm

I find myself sitting in a sophisticated, top-notch café near to Spitalfields market in East London where the majority of London’s homeless population live. I’m sipping a fabulous creamy hot chocolate. There are beautiful photos on all walls of the café – arty, bright, inspiring images – and I wonder who they are by. Then my eyes are drawn to the endless line of customers laughing and chatting as they wait to order their lunch. I poke my head round the corner of the kitchen door and quietly snap a picture of the chefs busy at work, seriously arranging salmon and cress sandwiches on a silver platter.

By any reasonable standards one would think I was indulging in a top quality café for lunch. But I am in the midst of some seriously transformed human lives. All the staff who are serving customers, cleaning tables and preparing food were once either homeless or in prison. All the photos and paintings dotted around the building are taken by homeless people seeking to acquire new skills so that they can re-enter the workplace and all the profits from this café go directly back into the homeless charity Crisis.

Jo Taylor has been managing Skylight for two years and is incredibly passionate about what she does. “Essentially the good vibes in this place are all about getting homeless people and ex-offenders back on their feet so they can face the world outside” she says excitedly.

But Skylight is more than just a café; it offers a variety of skills-based lessons and opportunities. Homeless people and ex-offenders can be part of cookery, photography or arts based lessons or woodwork and technology workshops. Jo guides me through the hidden spaces of the building. Upstairs is the ‘learning zone’ where showers and space for socializing are available. Downstairs is the café.

Every chef, waitress, waiter, counter assistant, comes to training sessions two or three days a week and the other days, they work and learn on the job. In between all of that they sleep out on the streets. But between them all business is run as usual. No-one could guess that this café is a thriving social enterprise.

Skylight works in partnership with Switchback, who mentor young offenders in prisons around the country. They refer young people- between the ages of 18 – 24 to Skylight for training from those who have been in prison for three months or longer and shown significant improvement in that time.

“By giving homeless and ex-offenders a real focus, that requires dedication, commitment and hard work, we help them to detach from old habits and to understand their own potential to succeed,” says Jo.

Is it really that easy? “Of course, not everyone who comes in to the café is responsive to what we offer” Jo admits. “Many people who start here are still struggling with their own personal chaos and frantic lifestyles.”

Alice Dawnay, a mentor at Switchback, shed some more light on the difficulty of their work. “The good work we do in prisons with young offenders is often lost when people are released. The structured, institutional prison environment often leaves people at a loss when they get out into the real world.

“Regardless of the structure in the Skylight café it remains difficult for many ex-offenders to cope with change. Neither Switchback nor Skylight can force people to change – people have to make choices to help themselves and then we have a part to play.”

Alice tells me that on average around 5 out of 16 referrals Switchback gives return to prison within the year.

“Sometimes it will take people a few shots at getting back into work and normal life” Alice explains. “This year we have seen three people come out of prison, go to the café, go back into prison, then come back to the café. The process is not so simple that the first time they get out of prison and go to the café, they live happily ever after.”

Despite the challenges, within a year Skylight sees on average twenty people of those who come through its doors get back into work and about six people a year enter further education.

The team are more excited than normal this year because since July seven trainees have progressed into further education and nine have moved on to work. They have achieved in six months what was previously done in an entire year.

The Success Story

MARK KING is 21, from East London.

“I lived a young life of crime, alcohol and drugs until I was about 17,” Mark tells me as we sit in the lounge area of Skylight Café. “In the end I wound up in Rochester Prison.”

“I always thought I would be a success no matter what I did. I thought I was invincible or something.”

It’s almost a clichéd story “I was angry and depressed and full of hatred for many many reasons when I was growing up. Then I made some bad choices, took some wrong turns, and stuff just sort of just happened without me thinking about it.”

After 2 months ‘inside’ for crimes that shall remain nameless, the so-called Young Offender came across Switchback mentor Alice Dawnay. With her “charm and genuine care”, Alice made Mark think seriously about his aspirations for the future.

“She asked me to imagine I had a clean slate and could start again. All my life I had always had this weird appreciation for food and so the answer was all of a sudden obvious – I wanted to be a chef.”

Alice contacted the Skylight Café to refer the Young Offender as a trainee chef. Within days of serving his time in prison, Mark was learning the methods of gutting fish and scrubbing pans. “On my first day at Skylight I was pretty nervous but more than that I was really determined not to let myself down again – not to slip back into old habits. I knew I mustn’t screw it up this time.”

Mark now attends Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s

We finish our drinks and I watch Mark for a while chatting to the new people in the kitchen. With everything he has been through he seems wise beyond his years, with a desire to help others in the position he was once in.

River Cottage in Devon where he is completing a cooking traineeship. He still comes back to Skylight, to visit those who got him back on his feet. “They are like my family here” he admits.

To donate towards helping Crisis tackle homelessness please go to www.crisis.org.uk. If you know someone who could benefit from training at the Skylight Cafe please contact Jo Taylor by email at joanna.taylor@crisis.org.uk