Tom Throws Troubled Youngsters A Lifeline

Tom Carroll is supporting troubled youngsters to turn their own lives around. Tom feared he’d never work again after 10 years on benefits. Instead, he has turned his love of an-gling into a coaching business to help some of the area’s most troubled youngsters change track.

“I was at the end of my tether when I attempted to return to work and failed. A friend rec-ommended I contact Shaw Trust, which changed my life.”

Tom says arranging an initial chat with Shaw Trust’s Project Officer Diane Stabler in 2005 was one of the best decisions he’d made.

With Diane’s help, Tom was able to look at the kind of employment opportunities available and, having broached the possibility of some kind of teaching, he embarked on the course to train to be an angling coach. Shaw Trust helped by seeking funding sources and the equipment he needed to set up. 

Tom qualified to become a level two coaching instructor in angling and launched his own business, ‘Fishing with Tom’. He runs his business for 16 hours a week, much of it work-ing with youngsters aged between six and 17, many of whom are in secure facilities, tagged or awaiting sentencing.

Tom says the rewards work both ways: “The changes I see in them make me feel unbe-lievable. I get a tingle down my spine every time it happens. It’s absolutely brilliant and has also been one huge learning curve for me as I watch them transform themselves.”

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