Turning his back on an abusive childhood and the revolving door of prison
With a help of the ‘No Wrong Door Network’
Walking out with a new hope
Shaun Kelly is 48 years old. After an abusive childhood he
spiralled out of control as a teenager, getting expelled from
school at 15 and kicked out of his home at about 19 years old.
He became homeless, his mental health deteriorated and a
violent assault triggered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
With no direction or anchor in his life he was caught up in a
repeating cycle of violence, crime and prison. For nearly 30
years he went in and out of prison.
But things have changed. Toward the end of his last
sentence Shaun connected with Birmingham Changing
Futures Together’s No Wrong Door Network, a group of
18 organisations working together to provide ‘joined-up’
services through one point of contact. Instead of walking
out of prison to a frightening and isolated life, he was met
by a peer mentor and lead worker from Shelter. That was
January 2016. Since then, as well as receiving the housing
support from Shelter, he has been referred to other Network
members for support specific to his needs, which includes
anger and stress management courses and counselling.
his life deteriorated. Adrift, he left his grandparents’ home.
He was homeless for three years, sofa surfing and sleeping in
bus shelters and garden sheds. His history of violence meant
no hostel would allow him in.
In 1990 the inevitable happened and he went to jail; his first
sentence was 12 months. The environment gave him some
security. He had somewhere safe and warm to sleep and he
was fed, but when he came out he had nowhere to go, no
money and no job. He resorted to petty crime and, mixing
with ‘the wrong crowd’, he was exposed to violence. On one
occasion, he suffered a serious head injury. Coming after such
a destructive childhood, the violent assault – he needed 200
stitches and had a blood clot – this event led to Sean being
diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His behaviour
became more extreme; he became more violent and relied on
drugs and alcohol.
“I felt like a caged animal,” said Shaun. “I was attacking and
hitting out because of the rage boiling inside me. I kept
reliving the trauma of my childhood, re-experiencing the
beatings as if they were happening now.”
He’s been free of alcohol and drugs since then and is now
looking forward to a positive future.
“I’ve spent about 20 years of my life in prison,” said Shaun. I
was getting longer and longer sentences, not complying with
the licence when I was released and sent straight back.
Shaun’s story
“When you get released you’re sent to a probation hostel.
It’s like going into the lion’s den. It’s the worst possible
environment for anyone who wants to get things together and
move on with their life.
Shaun was raised in a violent home. His father, a prison
officer, took out his anger on his wife and Shaun, regularly
beating them both. In this abusive environment, instead of
learning how to manage his own frustrations, Shaun was
shown violence was the answer. When he was bullied at school
he lashed out and increasingly became unmanageable in the
school environment. After repeated warnings and frequently
being canned he was expelled. Things at home deteriorated
further and when he was about 19 he finally hit his father
back. He was kicked out of the family home immediately.
Facing homelessness, he moved in with his mother’s elderly
parents. His grandfather died in front of his eyes from
emphysema, and without a support network able to help him
make sense of his loss and dysfunctional and abusive childhood
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“Caught in the revolving door, I have missed out on so much
in life. I have no family life; I’m a qualified brick layer but I
haven’t been able to hold down a good job for long. It’s not a
life you would choose.”
Things were different the last time Shaun came out of prison.
In his last few months inside he took a course on violence
and compulsive drinking. It gave him an insight into his
behaviour. Then, whilst still in prison, he engaged with
Birmingham Changing Futures Together’s Lead Worker Peer
Mentor service, delivered by Shelter. As a result, instead of
going straight to the probation hostel on his release, he was
met at the gate by two workers, his peer mentor and lead
worker. A peer mentor is someone with lived experience.
He’d taken the first step towards a new future.
“As I walked out the prison officers said ‘see you in a couple
of weeks’,” explained Shaun, “but they didn’t. My peer mentor
made a big difference. I was scared when I came out of
prison; the probation hostel was a threatening environment,
everything in the outside world had changed and I had
nothing. I came out with £46 which had to last two weeks.
My benefits were delayed for three weeks and I had to pay £30
straight away for the hostel. I couldn’t share my problems with
my probation officer but I could tell my peer mentor. He’d
been in my situation so he knew what I was talking about. He
understood me.”
“
“It was late on a rainy day when I came out of prison and
I had very little time to get to the probation office. If my
peer mentor and lead worker hadn’t met me as I walked out
I would have gone straight to the off-licence and been back
inside within days. Without their support my future was a
life sentence or violent death.”
“
With Shelter part of the No Wrong Door Network, Shaun’s
peer mentor and lead worker were able to provide more than
housing support and understanding. They facilitated access
to support services necessary to address his other needs. This
has included anger and stress management courses at Crisis
Skylight and referral to Birmingham MIND for the floating
support and to Citizen Coaching for his counselling needs.
The Birmingham Changing Futures
Together Programme
Birmingham Changing Futures Together
programme improves the effectiveness of
service provision to those with multiple and
complex needs. It does this by bringing together
organisations in the sector, identifying and sharing
best practice and establishing new approaches.
Shaun’s story shows the value of seeing the person
as a whole. The Changing Futures Together
programme provides a ‘community of support’,
facilitating interaction between other colleagues
and leading to better, more satisfying outcomes.
The No Wrong Door Network
At the heart of the Changing Futures approach,
the No Wrong Door Network is a group of
organisations working together to ensure service
users, with at least two of the four complex needs
(homelessness, substance misuse, offending and
mental health) can have access to a whole system
of support through one referral.
Engagement in the Birmingham Changing Futures
Together programme is not limited to those
charities and organisations formally part of the No
Wrong Door Network. All other organisations can
benefit from the best practice
approaches being developed
and shared with sector
members through learning
events and the Birmingham
Changing Together website:
changingfuturesbham.co.uk.
He is now training to be a peer mentor himself.
“I still get anxious but it doesn’t escalate to violence now,”
continued Shaun. “I’m learning how to stop things from
getting to me and while I’ve had a few scrapes since coming
out of prison, I’ve managed to de-escalate things. I’ve still got
lots of rage inside me but I’m working hard to control it. I take
diazepam to control my mood swings and anti-psychotics to
quieten the voices in my head.”
Contact the BVSC Birmingham Changing
Futures Together team for more information.
www.changingfuturesbham.co.uk
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