Zoe
Zoe is hoping that her new home will give her stability
I’ve moved quite a number of times in my life. I’m now on my 27th time and live in Huddersfield. I’ve lived in London four times, Scarborough, Blackpool, parts of Leeds, all over the place really.
All that moving felt bad. My mum said it was because of my dad, and I sometimes wondered what he had done – she said he’d been harassing us a lot. I always wanted to stay in one place, and now that I’m in Huddersfield I can. It’s quiet – except the noise of people buzzing in through the night, and from living above a takeaway!
I don’t really go out in Huddersfield much – I just keep myself to myself. I know that if I meet some friends I could get back into trouble. I realise what I put my family through and it’s not helping at all. I’m frightened to get involved with people in case they’re involved in crime so I stick to seeing my best friend. We’re really close and I can tell her anything, but we can’t see each other in certain areas because of our orders, so we have to think of alternatives or meet in private places.
With all the moving, it’s always been hard for me to make relationships because I never know how long I’m going to stay. Once I got kicked out of my mum’s so I went to my dad’s, but he kicked me out. I know I’m safe when I’m with my mum though. I definitely prefer to be at hers than Dad’s. Dad says I can’t see my mum, but Mum doesn’t say the same about my dad.
I’m involved in a few things – I’ve been doing stuff with the CRAE, User Voice and college and through youth work I’ve travelled around a bit, to London, Bradford and Birmingham. My life’s getting better since I’ve been with User Voice because I can talk a lot about stuff. It keeps me out the house as well, instead of being home and bored. I’m proud of myself. Better the stuff I’m doing now than I was before. I just want to say thank you User Voice for everything you’ve done.
Taken from Issue 19
