Written by Wilson, Community Worker
Jamella* didn’t say much the first time we met. She sat with her arms crossed, eyes flicking toward the floor whenever I asked a question.
15 years old and out of school for months, Jamella had withdrawn from nearly everything outside her home. Her mother wanted her back in a classroom. But Jamella? She just wanted to feel better – to feel okay enough to leave the house, maybe find a job one day. The idea of returning to school made her tense up. She didn’t say it outright, but you could hear it in her pauses. It wasn’t just social anxiety, it was a survival mechanism.
With her permission, I connected her with an organisation that supports young people through community-based mental health care. She was matched with befrienders who had faced their own struggles, and for the first time in a while, she wasn’t the only one trying to figure things out. That seemed to matter more than any formal intervention ever could.
Jim*, also 15, had stopped school too but for different reasons. He’s on the autism spectrum, and after an outburst that led to a police case, he shut down. Not emotionally, but logistically. He couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t sit still, couldn’t bring himself to engage in lessons when everything in his body was bracing for legal repercussions. His mother was supportive, but even she didn’t know what would help.
When we spoke, I asked if he thought there was anything he could do. Not to erase the past, but to show that he understood what happened and cared about repairing it. That led to a conversation about meeting the person affected by his outburst. It wasn’t an easy decision, but Jim agreed. He wanted to take accountability in a way that felt real, not forced.
I didn’t ask either of them to go back to school. That wasn’t the point. At Beyond, we try not to start with solutions. We start with the person. And if the goal is change, it has to come from them.
That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when, just weeks later, both of them brought it up separately.
Jamella told me she had decided to take her secondary school exams as a private candidate. “I think I can do it,” she said. Not for her mother. Not for Beyond. But for herself.
Jim told me at our second meeting, almost in passing, “I’ve been back at school.” Just like that. Just a step forward because he finally felt ready.
What helped wasn’t a plan or a prescription. It was knowing someone would show up beside them, regardless of the pace they moved.
I hope, in time, both Jamella and Jim will feel ready to participate in more community activities to widen their circles and build more relationships. But for now, they’ve taken the first steps. And that’s theirs to own.
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” – Martin Luther King, Jr