Our mentee success story – Alex

Our Peer Support mentors provide practical one-to-one weekly support and constructive activities to help those we support with the hard internal transformation needed to build positive change in their lives and achieve their goals.  Week after week they help make hugely positive impacts to people’s lives. Here is one of our many success stories with CLI worker Patrick and his mentee Alex.

Alex’s story

My background was bad.  I was homeless at one point, I was sofa surfing, I dealt drugs and took them heavily. I wasn’t a stranger to violence, and I had a son who I didn’t see and family I barely kept in touch with. I had no ambition or get up

and go to the point I ended up doing a prison sentence.

Patrick helped me with multiple things like my provisional licence, my doctors, a birth certificate, a bank account and requesting PIP which I’ve been awarded.

Without Patrick’s help I would have not of done any of those things and wouldn’t have known where to start. I’m now happy as can be. Me and my partner have

moved into our house, I’ve fully stopped taking drugs, I attend all my appointments and now I’m ready for employment which Patrick has also helped with.

I strongly advise anyone with problems or life choices like my old ones to accept all help available and if all CLI workers are like Patrick you’ll gain a pal not just a support worker.

Patrick’s view

Alex arrived at a point in his life where he felt ready for something different. Although he had been dealt a bad hand in life, he accepted his own mistakes and

decided that he wanted to take his future back into his own hands.

He began his journey with CLI in November 2022. At his initial assessment he had no

support ties to the community but what Alex did have was a desire to work on himself, and a drive to become a positive role model for his children.

We began to work on the basics. We supported him to obtain a birth certificate and a provisional driving license; a bank account; and a GP. We also worked together to get Alex into a more financially stable position, by helping him get the financial support he was entitled to.  Accomplishing these goals helped Alex to gain a greater level of independence and a feeling of control over his own life. More importantly, the motivation and emotional support provided to Alex throughout his journey empowered him to believe in himself. He began to show confidence in what he could achieve and accomplish things independently. Alex is about to complete training to become employed in a meaningful career. I have absolutely no doubt that he will accomplish this feat. It has been a joy to witness Alex’s incredible and inspiring growth and I wish him all the best for his future!