A teenager has bounced back against all the odds after a tragic and abusive childhood led him to seek refuge in alcohol and drugs.
18-year-old Jack O'Reilly grew up facing abuse before being kicked out of his home. At the age of just 11 his uncle was murdered and his dad became dependent on alcohol while his mum’s new partner was emotionally abusive towards him.
Speaking about his experiences, Jack said: "He spent years being horrendous towards me and I regularly suffered awful emotional manipulation. At 15, I’d had enough and snapped one day, confronted him and things became physical before I got kicked out by my mum.
“I lived with my dad for a few weeks but it quickly became clear that I couldn’t stay there but I had been throwing myself into school work despite what was going on at home and I was always in school as a consequence.”
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Jack, who is a passionate and talented musician then came into contact with a service called Supported Lodgings as a 16-year-old through his sixth form college at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) and social services, as there were serious concerns about where he was going to be living.
The Supported Lodgings service is run by charity Local Solutions, who have operated across Merseyside and North Wales since 1974, The charity aims to provide family-style accommodation to homeless young people across different boroughs in the region.
Young people using this service are accommodated with registered householders in their homes and each receives their own room while sharing the kitchen and bathroom facilities as an alternative to living in a hostel - which is exactly what happened for Jack.
He said: “I was constantly in sixth form to try and avoid home, it was like my enemy and ironically I was the opposite of most kids just wanting to be in school all the time.
“So, it was nice to get out of my home environment and have more structure and support. To get away from the trauma of difficult family situations and be given a chance to process the abuse and acknowledge what happened was important. Though it’ll never go away it was nice to be given a chance to deal with it and focus on something better for me.
“As I was at LIPA, which is already a high bar to get into, it allowed me to focus and think about the possibility of university. I didn’t really think it was a possibility before but I got into Leeds Conservatoire university this year and I had a massive headstart as I was already used to doing my cooking, cleaning and washing - so they were good life skill advantages.”
Leeds Conservatoire is a specialist and highly competitive music and performing arts institution. Jack said he badly needed a "caring environment and a little bit of guidance" to allow him to progress in life.
There is currently a large gap in the amount of householders and families willing to take on young people as part of the Supported Lodgings service. The mum who took Jack in said the reason she did it initially was because she thought about her own daughter and what she’d want someone to do if they were in a similar situation.
Jack’s journey was helped hugely by his interaction with Local Solutions, Supported Lodgings and the Wirral family who welcomed him.
To find out more about Supported Lodgings and to get involved please visit https://www.localsolutions.org.uk/north-west-services/accommodation-support/5-supported-lodgings
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