It is the highlight of my week; I love coming here
B is 13 and been coming to Future Roots for a little over a year. He lives with his mum who has mental health problems and who needed B to be home to help her to cope. B regularly gives up his bed for their frequent visitors and struggles with being extremely tired as a result. B was diagnosed with Asperger’s and had stopped attending school. He was supposed to go to a Learning Centre but his mum took him out – whether that was to meet her needs or because he was being bullied wasn’t clear. He was terrified of being with young people. B loved animals and it was this that enabled a social worker to convince B’s mum to allow B to come to Future Roots.
Initially his mum would stay with B, then she waited in the car and now that she has seen that we can be trusted and that B needs and wants to be with us we rarely see her. She’s learnt to manage without B. She’s seen that coming to the farm has given him the skills to be with other young people – to share, to take turns and to be polite. It has opened up possibilities for him and there are more choices available to him. Future Roots helped this change to happen using animal assisted therapy and providing an opportunity to be in a safe environment. With this we worked on his confidence, communication and his sense of achievement to enable him to cope when he is anxious, to develop practical skills and make friends – these are all core elements of building resilience. He is interested and keen to work with mechanics and long term we hope this will happen.
