Jonathan Bellamy spoke with author Dave Wiles

Dave Wiles

Dave Wiles spent years on probation for drug dealing, vandalism and burglary. Now CEO of The Frontier Youth Trust he's released Stories From The Edge a book about young people at risk. It covers the stories of thirty young people dealing with issues such as offending behaviour, youth culture and gangs. With such poignant topics Jonathan Bellamy decided to chat with Dave to find out more.

Jonathan: This is a rather hard hitting book; in fact there is a word of note - a word of warning in the front because of the material which may affect people directly. What inspired you to write this book?

Dave: Well I think I've been inspired by my contact with the youth and community workers around the country who work alongside young people who are at risk. I think a lot of Christian youth work material tends to kind of stay with - I'm not decrying church based youth work at all; but it can stay in the realms of being safe, you know running programmes for young people from church etc. Frontiers Youth Trust, the organisation I work for is really interested to help, support, encourage and train youth workers and community workers who want to relate to those who may be harder to reach; so I wanted this book in a sense to fill that gap in the market. I suppose the other reason is that my own background is such that I've been interested in working with young people at risk for the last thirty five years.

Jonathan: What got you into it in the first place?

Dave: Well the book tells some of my own background story and it's a story of a very turbulent adolescence and involvement in crime; Dad was in prison when I was growing up; involvement in drugs and the drug culture of my day and then a very profound conversion experience to Christianity which really turned my world inside out. My conversion made me realise that God cared for and liked people like me and therefore kind of inspired me to become involved in youth and community work. I've kind of tracked some of my own story in terms of pre Christian and some of my story and experiences after having become a Christian and worked alongside young people at risk since that time really.

Jonathan: Where do the stories in the book come from then?

Dave: Well some of the stories are from my own experience as a youth and community worker and other stories I've collected from youth and community workers I know around the country. Christians who are involved in working with young people on the streets; working with girls who are involved in the sex industry for example; young people coming out of prison and working alongside young people where they are.

Jonathan: Now, you were saying just now just a little bit about church perspective. Do you think churches are a little bit sanitised and perhaps not aware of the reality of life for a young person today?

Dave: I think they can be really Jon. I'm not wanting to be critical, because I do believe that God's plan, one of God's major plans for the redemption of the world is through the church and I don't think there is a plan B; but I think at times we tend to get into a kind of comfortable version of Christianity, which is almost consumerist really. We go on a Sunday to collect our portion of God as it were - a kind of feel good factor. I mean as evidenced by people saying things like, I didn't get much out of the worship on Sunday you know. It feels to me we've fallen into a kind of consumerist trap really, whereby God is consumed alongside other consumables. My view of Christianity is that it's about sleeves rolled up, dirty hands involvement with the world around us. In a sense the book is written to inspire that, to inform that, and to encourage it.

Jonathan: I presume that's what the work of the Frontier Youth Trust is like as well? Describe a little bit of what you do.

Dave: Yeah, absolutely. We run projects that work alongside young people who are at risk. So, for example, working with young offenders; we've got a project called Out For Good, which works with young people as they come out of prison and helps them to gain accommodation, employment and also provides mentors for them. We also run camps in the summer for young people from inner city situations which often enable young people to get a holiday where they wouldn't otherwise get one. We give advice to young people who are using drugs. We're involved in a whole bunch of street projects alongside young people on the streets, helping them to take action on things that concern them. So for example, in Chard recently we worked alongside a group of young people to enable them to get better facilities for their hobby of skating; but as well as doing that kind of work, we're also very involved in training Christians who are involved in working alongside young people and providing them with the kind of resources that we hope will inspire and encourage them in their service of young people.

Jonathan: Now you mention you've been involved in youth work for years now. Do you see any difference between a younger generation's issues and challenges today from say twenty years ago?

Dave: Absolutely. I've been involved in youth and community work now for thirty five years, and I think myself and others who work alongside young people are immigrants in the world of young people we serve. We're living in very different times. Technology is so advanced. Young people are very individualistic, hedonistic, into pleasure with few restraints facing a whole barrage of new experiences. However, I think one of the things we have as an advantage in working with young people, is the fact that we have been young people. You know you can relate to some of their experiences, having grown up yourself; but also one of the disadvantages we have of working with young people is that we've been young people. They live a very different world to ours. I think that's one of the good things about Frontier Youth Trust, is that we help youth and community workers to understand something of that world and to relate, more importantly, to those young people; so rather than relating to a set of theories and ideas, you're relating out of a direct experience.

Jonathan: Do you have any examples you can share perhaps - not necessarily one of the worst stories, but one of the hardest situations that you've seen redeemed through the work that you've done.

Dave: Yes through the work of Frontier Youth Trust; our Out For Good projects are great ideas. Many young people coming out of prison face incredible odds in terms of rehabilitation in the community. You know very often they're kind of labelled by the police; very often they're in the wrong kind of peer groups so they're very often tempted to re-offend. They've often had really traumatic experiences when they're growing up; for example, many young people in our prisons today have got mental health problems; they come from poor families; they may be black; many issues that they face, which stacks the odds against them. Now Pete Hope who runs the Out For Good project for us relates to many of those young people as they come out of prison and one example would be a young lad called Lee who came out. We managed to help him buy his own bike for the first time and he was stopped by the police several times and asked to produce some receipt for the bike, which he actually had, which was wonderful. We helped him get on to a course to become a lifeguard. He subsequently has been involved in helping a Christian project on the east coast run facilities with young people who want to go out to sea and sail. He's become a volunteer with that project and is staying out of trouble. Now he may well get into trouble in the future, but to date, for about a year now, he's not reoffended; he's not back in prison after a life which was moving in that direction quite consistently.

Jonathan: Fantastic. Now this book is written with youth workers in mind. How will it benefit youth workers?

Dave: It will help them look at some of the issues that young people face today and it will provide them with a whole bunch of skills, I hope, and ideas about how to work with young people. In the book I cover things like offending behaviour. I cover issues related to working with young people who use drugs. I help youth workers think through issues relating to youth culture and also young people and spirituality. I really hope it will help youth workers to reflect on some of those issues. However I also hope it would help other Christians, people who aren't necessarily involved in youth work, to think about how they relate to young people in meaningful ways. The publisher has been brilliant. Monarch published the book and they've been absolutely amazing; however I was a bit sad about the strap line that they put on the front of the book, which was - a practical resource for youth workers. I actually think the book offers a bit more than that. I really think it helps anyone who's interested in loving and helping other people, to reflect on how to do that in a way that's meaningful and real.

Jonathan: Dave if people want to know more about your work or perhaps how they can get involved, what should they do?

Dave: Two things really; one is to look at our website which is www.fyt.org.uk or they can phone our office in Birmingham and be put in touch with me or one of my team at any time and the phone number of our office in Birmingham is 01216873505.

You can buy Stories From The Edge from Cross Rhythms Direct for £10.44.