About Guiding young minds
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Meet the Team
Our mentors and youth workers have specialist knowledge, expertise and experience and in understanding gang strategies, enabling them to implement programmes aimed at both preventing gang involvement and helping individuals immersed in gang culture.
ANTON
Team leader and mentor
Anton grew up and lives in Coventry and was part of the local gang scene when younger. He founded Guiding Young Minds and is our programme manager and lead mentor.
Anton is an urban specialist consultant in gang culture and serious youth violence and is a motivational and transformational speaker.
As a Gang Exit Strategist, he is a skilled mediator and is also qualified as an expert witness to the courts.
BARBARA
Director
Barbara is by birth a cockney, having been born and spent her early years in West Ham in East London. She went to London university and then moved to the Midlands, now living in Rugby.
Her passion is to help young people move on following disadvantaged and traumatic childhoods.
Qualified as a psychologist and trauma therapist, Barbara oversees and manages Guiding Young Minds, ensuring that it is ethically based, that it safeguards young people and that all work is trauma informed.
KEVIN
Youth worker and mentor
Kevin lives in Northampton but grew up in Moss Side, Manchester.
He was attracted by what the ‘streets’ had to offer – the money and other nice things. His lifestyle landed him in prison 4 times. He saw friends killed and almost lost his own life.
Now, having turned his life around, Kevin is a GYM mentor and youth worker and is committed to supporting others.
FATIMA
Youth worker and counsellor
Fatima grew up in Europe but now lives in Coventry.
She is a psychology and counselling student and works as a GYM youth worker part time.
She is skilled in helping young people with mental health difficulties. Her goal is to always be there for any young people who face challenges in their lives.
NIA
Youth worker and mentor
Nia grew up and lives in Coventry and is a GYM mentor and youth worker.
She is part of a large family and had several challenging siblings who got in trouble with the law when younger. This has given her a lot of understanding of the challenges young people face.
She is experienced in working with young people from many different backgrounds and has a university degree in childcare.
Priya
Youth worker
Priya lives in Coventry and is a student at Coventry university.
Growing up many of her friends were deeply involved in illegal activity, and she lost several friends to knife crime.
With these memories still fresh, she is committed to helping young people to make better choices in life, and if they are already deep into gang life she wants them to know that there is a way out.
Indie
Youth worker and mentor
Indie was born in the UK but moved to Australia he was 2 years old. He gained a degree in Psychology in Australia, and then found himself wanting to come back and experience the UK while playing football. He now plays for Coventry Copsewood.
He has faced quite a few challenges in life so far, which has led him to want to give his time to positively impacting the lives of others and reducing the stigma around mental health.
Indie works for GYM as both a mentor and youth worker. He loves learning about new things and understanding people, and wants to positively impact the lives of those around him.
MUDRIK
Youth worker
Mudrik is a GYM Youth Worker who grew up in Tanzania but now lives in Coventry.
Mudrik was involved Gang activity in Coventry when younger and was also part of the Friendship Circle. He has now changed his life around.
He is football crazy and has played at high levels. He is a qualified FA Coach and now runs his own football team, which he encourages young people to join, to both motivate and inspire them.
With experience in security, he is committed to keeping young people safe.
History of GYM
Guiding Young Minds grew and developed from the charity ASSIST Trauma Care
ASSIST is a specialist therapeutic organisation dedicated to supporting people who have suffered psychological trauma. Anton Noble, who initially worked for ASSIST, grew up in Coventry in the heart of gangland, and knew from experience how it felt to be a young person living in a troubled community.
He quickly recognised that many such young people are traumatised by their experiences, and in 2015 had the vision to create GYM, a service inspired to help them break free from trauma and break away from the path their lives were taking.
Anton Noble created G.Y.M. to help young people trapped in gang activity
Anton was supported in his vision by Barbara Goodfellow, ASSIST psychologist and psychotherapist, and together they aspired to bring mentors and therapists together as one service to support young people trapped in gang activity and so tackle the violence that plagued their communities. And so GYM was born, with the aim to fill the gap that was missing in inner city communities.
A team of specialists helping young people recover from early life trauma and later gang involvement
Guiding Young Minds is at heart therapeutic service which recognises that young people caught up in gangs and knife crime have often experienced adverse childhood events. Our mentors have specialist knowledge, expertise and experience in understanding gang strategies, enabling them to implement programmes aimed at both preventing gang involvement and helping individuals already immersed in gang culture.
Making a positive difference in young lives
GYM is characterised by its unwavering dedication to nurturing and empowering young individuals and making a positive difference in their lives. Since its establishment, GYM has helped over 3,500 young people and their families. The organisation’s commitment to establishing life-altering relationships with vulnerable young people has been highlighted in the Channel 4 documentary:
The daily focus of the GYM team is to help young people avoid gang involvement and/or being caught up in street violence, or, if they are already involved, to support them in finding a way out.
We want to show them that they really are never in too deep to make a change.
Help them see a way out
Your donations hep us helping individuals already immersed in gang culture to get out of it and find a better path.
