Product of a Postcode Chief Executive and Founder Gary Hutton is a well experienced youth worker who has amassed decades of experience in Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) and Citizenship education. He is devoted to help the most disadvantaged members of society to avoid involvement in criminal activity. As a young man, he committed serious criminal offences and has served custodial sentences. The experience of life that was given to Gary from a very early age has a very powerful effect on his mission to change lives and has shown that those working with young people must do everything they can to avoid young people choosing the path of crime. He has written popular and compelling books about his life.
Product of a Postcode’s headline programme is ‘Fight for a Better Life’, a programme that helps young people who have interacted with the criminal justice system at an early age to turn their lives around.
What Is ‘Fight For A Better Life’?
Since 2016 Product of a Postcode has run ‘Fight for a Better Life’, an intervention for young adults (aged 18-24) who are doubly disadvantaged. Our first selection criterion is that participants have criminal records such as cautions, reprimands and minor convictions. The second criterion is that they have been out of education, employment or training (NEET) for more than a year. The programme is a unique split of half a week of classroom-based lessons in which the participants learn skills and hear presentations, followed by half a week of physical activity in which they learn sports and nutrition. In some iterations of the programme, the participants have worked towards a live boxing showcase in which they display their newfound prowess in front of their family. As a result of the programme and the support given alongside it, 60% of the participants lost their NEET status after completion. Four of the participants received job offers and two went back to education. None of the participants who have made it to the end of the programme are known to have committed further offences after completion.
