As he sits in Canary Wharf, dressed in a smart suit, it is hard to believe that Yousuf Naeem once feared he might end up in prison.
Before becoming an apprentice at one of the “Big Four” accountancy companies, however, he had grown used to the sound of sirens as a teenager after falling in with the “wrong crowd” at school.
In fighting off boredom they often turned to troublemaking in the streets of south London. “I became familiar with handcuffs and police cars, especially during the summer when I wouldn’t have school,” he says, adding that officers were regularly called to break up their scuffles.
Like many young people living in the capital, Yousuf lacked exposure to the great outdoors. He developed mental health and anger issues that stifled his social life and affected his education.
“I struggled with friendships and processing those sorts of emotions,” Yousuf says. “I would get really frustrated over little things. Because I was in London I didn’t have an outlet, it just kept building up and getting worse and worse. It did affect my school life as well, my exams. I would get really stressed out and that would just add on top of it. I closed myself in and couldn’t talk to anybody for a solid two months.”
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Yousuf was 17 when he realised that something needed to change. “The company you keep speaks volumes,” he adds. “A couple of my old group are doing time now. I think if I was to stay with them I probably would have ended up somewhere similar ... and definitely wouldn’t be here in Canary Wharf.”
Yousuf, from Dulwich, has since gone on to mentor young people expelled from mainstream education. He decided not to go to university, winning an apprenticeship at one of the Big Four in Canary Wharf, where he is gaining a professional diploma in accounting.
Now 22, he credits turning his life around to enrolling on a course organised by Outward Bound, a charity that helps thousands of disadvantaged or struggling young people by sending them on trips to the great outdoors.
The three-week Skills for Life Award course in the Lake District, funded by a bursary from the charity, required participants to complete a number of outdoor activities each day to aid their personal development and team-building skills.
Outward Bound assesses each group of schoolchildren to see how many are on free school meals or come from deprived backgrounds, providing heavily subsidised places to 17,000 of them each year to go on adventures in Britain’s wild places.
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Yousuf developed a sense of self-belief when he was made to jog and then jump into a lake every morning. “I can’t swim. So when I found myself on the jetty the nerves kicked in,” he said. “In the end, thanks to my team and instructors I quite literally took the plunge. Even though I was just bobbing up and down with a ridiculous amount of water up my nose, there was a sense of accomplishment inside me that no words can describe.”
It was as part of a team tasked with building a raft that he learnt to listen to others. After being adamant that his flawed design would float, Yousuf eventually accepted that an idea he had previously rejected from a peer was the better option. “I was quick to hang my head in shame and apologise. It took me 17 years to get there but I finally learnt that your own ideas aren’t always the best,” he says.
His most profound moment was during a solo 13-hour expedition on a mountain in the Helvellyn Range after he was stripped of any technological distractions.
“I was in my tent and as I was in my sleeping bag listening to the rain fall, I realised that for nearly two weeks I had not felt any anger or anxiety,” he says.
“It just clicked that the outdoors does help me, that I’m not just some stroppy kid. That if I put my mind to something and surround myself with the right people I can do stuff that puts me out of my comfort zone.”
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To reboot and recalibrate, he now regularly goes camping with his friends, inspired by his Outward Bound excursion.
“That was the turning point that really changed my mindset. That day made me realise that you can do more — that there is hope.”
All donations to Outward Bound will be doubled up to £400,000, via £300,000 from Barratt Developments and the Barratt Foundation and £100,000 from an anonymous donor.
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