What gave you the most hope as a young person?

[CeriMumsnet]

Growing up we all need support and encouragement to help us develop our confidence and find our way in life. Whether it came from a person, a place, or a life experience, we'd love to hear about the things that gave you hope and helped you believe in your future as a young person.

Did a teacher or mentor see your potential and set you on the path for your future career? Perhaps some kind words from a stranger gave you hope and comfort during a tough time, or maybe it was the support you received when you left home for the first time that made all the difference.

Everyone who posts on this thread by 1st May will be in with a chance to receive £200 to donate to a charity of their choice. T&Cs

We’re working with New Horizon Youth Centre, the only day centre in London supporting young people facing homelessness with emergency housing support and advice. For thousands of young people, there is no family support, no financial safety net, and no affordable housing options. Over 100,000 young people a year approach their council as homeless. We think our nation's children and young people deserve better. Find out more about the work New Horizon Youth Centre do and how to donate here.

Reading, I always found that whatever was going on around me I could loose myself in a book and the break from reality made me more positive about things. I don’t get as much time to read now, but whenever I do things always feel so much lighter

Girlguiding. I was a Brownie, then a Guide, a Young Leader with Rainbows and a Ranger. I think the setting of having somewhere which was just girls was really helpful for me. I was incredibly shy at school and hardly spoke in class, but I felt safe at guide meetings and was able to develop leadership skills. When I turned 18 I then did my adult leadership qualification for Rainbows. It’s probably no surprise that working with young people stuck with me and I am now a teacher.

I wanted to be a writer. A man I barely knew said "You'd do well in advertising". I knew precisely nothing about advertising, so I went to the local library and read the only two books there about it. I then persevered for months, took a (useless) course, And eventually got an interview and persuaded the boss of an agency to take me on for peanuts. This led to a career all over the world which involved writing books - one of which has now been selling for over 40 years. All because a man said "You'd do well in advertising."

Music and my record player. Looking through the records every week in Woolworths. Top of the Pops and radio shows, recording the top 40 on Sunday night, hearing new bands on John Peel sessions, Steve Wright and his various characters.

Magazines - Smash Hits: humour of Dear Black Type - Mumsnet roundups are the only thing that still remind me of this. ‘Yoof’ TV, Channel 4 shows like The Word. Taking loads of books out of the library. Weekly trips to the cinema.

Road mostly coach trips with friends, experiencing art, new foods, different cultures.

DGM, unconditional love, warm hugs, home cooked meals and fantastic puddings!

The type of friends who’ve remained friends for life despite not being teenagers anymore, country moves and the ups and downs of life.

Letters and the old postal service - where you could post a letter by lunchtime and it would arrive the same evening (now it takes almost a week for first class post to arrive), their reply would arrive the next day!

Compassionate student counsellor who gave me hope for the future when I was at a very low ebb.

Some really good advice and encouragement from a teacher at college - which funnily enough I mentioned only today, put me on a more inspiring path.

My grandparents always had faith in me and were so kind and supportive when my confidence was low as a teenager. They knew what to say and were always very grounding about what was most important too - they’d been and lived through so much their perspective on life really helped me as a teen/young adult

i didn’t get that support from any adult otherwise, certainly not at school nor at home

I grew up in a FSM household, with a f who resented his five daughters and only valued his son. A selfish, violent, controlling man.

My way out was a place at grammar school, which led to a place at university. I started work as a pub cleaner at 13. By 14 I was already saving to leave. I left for university at 18, despite f's concerted attempts to prevent it, and never went back.

I was alone from 18-30. I graduated, took an international job, bought a flat at 24 which gave me independence from landlords and flat shares.

I didn't really have any support, my driving motivation was to get as far away from my background as possible. To have the opposite life, to be financially secure, not be dictated to or controlled by a man and to have a relaxed comfortable home.

I have achieved that. I am single and live happily with my one DC in a rural village, good income, pension, good quality of life. Friends and hobbies, holidays and a career I enjoy. 🙂 My DC will have all the support I did not.

This. Reading saved my sanity . My parents were selfish, immature people who gave me no attention or love. We moved a lot so there were long periods without friends. I had no one I could talk to or confide in. I had no possessions to speak of. Reading was an absolute lifeline .

Nothing. This is so sad but I remember sitting in my first ever form time in Year 7 and hearing my form tutor tell us all that if we tried our best for the next few years we could do anything we wanted, I just thought ‘not me, I’ll never be able to do anything’ and that’s how it had always been and it has never changed. I’m not sure what it is, I think I was just born like this. Had a great childhood, family of academics and high achievers but I ended up leaving school before doing my GCSE’s and I still feel unworthy. I have children now and they are the only thing I’ve ever been proud of. I work an unskilled job and know I’m smart enough to do better but just don’t have the self belief. It’s not a great life tbh but I try my best to make sure my kids don’t ever see my sadness. They are all pretty confident and doing really well at school so I’m praying whatever it is inside me hasn’t been passed down, I’m proud of them regardless though. Wow, I’ve never written this down before. Crazy how we are all so different isn’t it.

Nothing massively profound but two phrases that come to me all the time and help me:

My art teacher at primary school. "Draw what you actually see, not what you think you should be seeing. An eye isn't eye-shaped, it's lots of lines, shadows and highlights that end up looking like something you recognise as an eye." It's actually something that comes to mind in so many situations and helps me ignore preconceptions or assumptions and view situations objectively.

When I was worried about presenting sone work at school. A teacher "in two hours, it will be lunch and you'll be outside playing in the sunshine." It gets me through every single day. If there's anything I have to face, eg making a hard phone call, an interview etc, I just tell myself that in X hours, it will be over and I'll be sat with a cup of tea like any other evening. It helps to not view the tricky event as some kind of 'end' that's being worked up to, but just a tiny moment in a day that will carry on afterwards.

When I was in primary our teacher got pregnant and we had a supply teacher. She was very kind and shy but she liked me and said to me "You can write, you have the knack for it" and a few years later I became a journalist. I always think of her when I think how an adult can influence a child or a young person's life.

My faith. I was a Christian from the age of 9 but it was in my teenage years when I met a great group of young Christians at school that my faith deepened. This was during the troubles in Belfast where hope was pretty scarce. A youth leader we had was so encouraging and we all felt we belonged. I'm still a Christian today, and my strong faith and fellow Christians have helped me through so much in life.

A friend's mum not batting an eye when I needed a spot to sleep for a few weeks, and being so matter of fact that I would get through a tough time and be fine. I don't think I believed anyone had faith in me till then.

Decent enough upbringing but my mum didn't want me to go to university. My self esteem was boosted by me getting good exam results I.e. I was good at something, and the fact my dad had an upbringing in poverty and worked his way to a decent job in law. So not actual support from anyone, just what I managed to achieve despite feeling fat and a bit unpopular.

Nothing anyone said or did.

I had to discover that I was capable by actually doing things myself. I've brought up my kids with that in mind - I still said all the right things of course, but I also stepped back and let them problem solve, have a go at things themselves, learn through their mistakes, take responsibility.

Sadly nothing
Hard childhood

But I gave a happy life now, better than I could gave ever hoped for, and perhaps I appreciate it more ?

Not that I'd want any child growing up like that tho

Social mobility, a free university education, a state safety net…
We don’t have those anymore do we?
We don’t even have Sure Start or Every Child Matters.

For me, it was an assortment of people

• the job centre advisor who knew just what employer would look after me as a fresh from school, wildly inexperienced and very shy 18 year old. That first job helped me grow so much
• my university tutor who noticed I was falling apart (due to a personal tragedy) and took hours out of his day to sort me out and help me find a way through
• the colleagues who found me volunteering opportunities that gave me the experience I needed to get on my dream career path
• the family friends who chatted to me about their careers and took so much time and interest in helping me make good choices

So many different little encounters that helped me through some very wobbly years due to a tragedy in my personal life just as I was finishing school

Aww that's so nice...I hope she knows how much she has shaped your life so positively 😊

Thanks everyone for your responses so far. We've really enjoyed reading your heartwarming stories and the various ways you found hope and support growing up ❤You still have two weeks to share your story for the chance to win £200 to donate to a charity of your choice. Who or what gave you hope, helped shape your future or encouraged you to believe in yourself a young person?

The poll is now closed and the results are in. We asked:

How many young people (16-24) were homeless in London last year?

Sadly, everyone who answered 15,000 is correct. New Horizon Youth Centre has shared some more information on this stat:

"Homelessness for young people can mean many things, such as sofa surfing, sleeping at work or college, staying with unsafe friends or family, living in overcrowded accommodation, or being forced to sleep in 24 hour cafes or public transport, or outside in parks or stairwells. In 2023-2024, 14,885 young people in London went to their council because they need help with homelessness (Source: Centrepoint databank).

New Horizon Youth Centre is the only day centre in London supporting young people facing homelessness with emergency housing support and advice. Our expert teams support young people to find a new home, gain new skills, and give them new hope as we face the future together."

Congratulations! If your children are the only thing you're proud of you should pat yourself on the back. Bringing up children is damn hard work. I have made (and lost) tons of money, travelled and worked all over the world. But the hardest, most important task is bringing up children. I wasn't always as good at that.

Well it certainly wasn't my parents!

But one day in primary school when we were engaged in class singing, the teacher told us to keep on singing, stopped playing and got up from the piano and walked round us all. When she came to me she tapped me on the shoulder and said to speak to her after the lesson. She told me that I could sing and should pursue this, and spoke to my parents who agreed to singing lessons.

It has been my life. I have sung with large and famous choirs and choral societies with world class conductors, sung in chamber choirs, regularly run a community choirs project for a well known international choirs festival, run my own community choir, run singing workshops for children and for disadvantaged adults ...... all from that chance moment in primary school.

That teacher gave me hope and boosted my confidence; and I have shared that hope with so many people and with my own children. Thank you to her.

The admissions tutor at Cambridge who knew I had struggled at school and was hardly there and wrote to me every week. It was knowing that one person cared and I mattered, something lacking in the state school I was at.

being loved

Prozac (honest answer!)

My mother’s unconditional love. She encouraged me but didn’t put me under pressure. A couple of good teachers gave me confidence and engaged me with learning. Some books, films and music reinforced my idea of myself as an individual with a contribution to make.