I’m Joe 20 years old and I have lived in the west end of Newcastle all of my life. I grew up having it quite rough and it wasn’t a childhood any child should have. I attended 3 different high schools as I was kicked out of 3 of them, I ended up in a pupil referral unit which I enjoyed. Aged 15 I found out I was going to be a Dad and on the 17/08/22 my little girl was born. I left school with no GCSE, 3 weeks later I started claiming universal credit. I have lost friends due to knife crime and a lot to drugs and suicide due to our upbringing. I was put into contact with The Kings Trust with Newcastle United Foundation, I was the youngest on programme and I ended up flourishing via the programme. I ended up with a 2-week voluntary work placement with the foundation and through that i ended up being rewarded with a sessional contract, I was sessional for around 2 months before being awarded a part-time contract on our PL kicks programme. 3 months later I ended up getting a full-time role in the operations team and fast forwarding 3 years on im now a full-time duty manager of the building running the day-to-day operations! I have attended quite a lot of events with the foundation to publicly speak about my journey and I love every minute of working here. My daughter has just started reception and she is doing amazing despite all the difficulties we have faced together over the last 4 years.