He said: “I have made the decision to leave a secure, high-paid management career to support vulnerable young people full time. I have launched Against The Odds, a youth intervention movement based in Manchester. My goal is simple: to help young people who are facing the same battles I once did – challenges around behaviour, confidence, identity, instability, and negative peer influence.”
Joel spent 15 years in the care system, moving from placement to placement with no stability or belonging.
He said: “By my mid-teens I’d fallen into the wrong crowds, felt completely lost, and ended up homeless. An arrest in my teenage years was the moment that woke me up. I realised I was becoming the statistic everyone assumed I would be.”
Joel built his life up from there and became one of the youngest managers in his field.
He said: “For the first time in my life I had stability, a good wage, and a clear career path. But deep down I knew I wasn’t doing what I was meant to do. Every young person I met who was struggling reminded me of myself. The anger. The confusion. The feeling of being invisible. I couldn’t ignore it. That’s why I walked away from a secure career to do this work full time. These young people matter more to me than any salary.”
Against The Odds delivers workshops, assemblies, mentoring and a six-week resilience and identity programme for schools, PRUs, youth services and charities.
Joel said: “Young people listen to people who have lived it, not people who just talk about it. When I walk into a school I speak to them honestly about my journey, the mistakes I made, and the choices that changed my life. I see myself in so many of them. And I know that if someone had stepped in earlier for me, things could have been different.”
Adding: “If I can change even one life, it’s worth everything I walked away from. Against The Odds is now available for bookings across Greater Manchester, supporting the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach young people.”