Early Years

My name is Jack Smith and I was born all the way back in the olden days, of 1995. I was born ginger, with a bit more hair than I have now, in the South East of the UK.

My first 4 and a half years on this earth were a rollercoaster of chaos. Both my parents struggled with addiction and drug abuse, including alcohol and heroin.

There was also a lot of domestic violence between my parents, neglect and abuse towards me and my siblings, with some police and social services involvement from a very young age.

When I was 4 and a half, me and my little sister were at our baby sitters and my mum just didnt come and collect us.

Foster Care

We were temporarily looked after by an aunt whilst everyone scrabbled with what to do, and then were placed in a foster placement, with relatives who we didnt really know, due to all the drama in our early life leading to fractured family relations.

I settled in at school and did really well, attending a mainstream education from 5 to 14, often exceeding expectations and achieving well academically and surprisingly, socially, at school.

I spent almost 10 years living with this aunt and uncle, and then unfortunately I became incredibly unwell and entered a hospital stay, for my mental health.

Mental Health Crisis

I spent nearly 2 years in hospital, going in a couple weeks after my 14th birthday and being discharged just before my 16th, my road to recovery was a rocky one, but I made it the other side.

When I left hospital, only 2 childrens home placements were available and my social worker made, quite probably, the single best and most important decision for me, and placed me in a home in the midlands area.

Children’s Home

Apart from the fact that when I swore, the staff took the mick out of my “posh” accent - “Oooh do fuck off” in the Queen’s English, I eventually felt like I was home. There were some bad times in my kids homes days, during my stay I was there from late 15 years old, until 18 and a half years old, but I’d say overall it was the amazing staff that saved the day and gave me a safe, loving home life, supporting my recovery after my stay in hospital.

I had missed a fair bit of education so attended the school my kids home company ran too, until I was 17 and I stayed part time at that school, whilst also attending a mainstream college.

Because I started my A levels at that college a year late, I was only able to finish the first year, because my kids home placement could only be funded for an extra 6ish months post my 18th birthday, to allow me to finish that educational year.

Which was ultimately pointless from an educational point of view, because I couldn’t find an educational provider in my home town, where I’d have been returning to, so I couldn’t finish the course and a couple AS levels are next to useless.

But it was pretty class to have an extra 6 months with my fab care staff and prepare to leave care, in some kind of fashion.

Independence & Success

I left care on the 4th of July, so the staff dubbed it “Jack’s independence day” and I made my way home, chauffeured back by my fabbest staff member, determined to make a success of my life. But shitting it about how to make that happen, knowing my background and health and potential limitations.

From 18 and a half to 22 and 3/4s, I bloody well smashed it. Life wasnt without its setbacks, but I did a hell of a lot.

Ever since a kid, I wanted to be the Prime Minister and even though I realised that probably wasnt an option, I had always been told if you aim for the moon, you will land among the stars. It didnt matter if I didn’t actually become the PM, but the fire and ambition and fuel it gave me to do something, however big or small, to be the change I wanted to see in the world, then damn straight I was gonna give it my best shot.

From attending meetings at parliament to meetings with my local council and councillors, to landing meetings with ministers and relevant government departments and civil servants, to making connections with my local council top dogs, to being in the national media multiple times, to making local news a couple times, to working on ground breaking research projects, to helping shape policy and decisions being made, to shaking hands with decision makers, and even meeting the actual Prime Minister, to public speaking events, conferences and networking events, to multiple lived experience/expert by experience roles across multiple sectors including the health and social care sector, justice sector and education sector, I bloody smashed it.

And along side that, I landed a place at university, completing the first year pretty damn well, if I do say so myself.

But then, disaster struck.

Breakdown & Recovery

Over the years and doing all that madness, I had my ups and downs, but they always seemed so catastrophically “high” and “low”.

When I was 22 and 3/4’s though, that escalated to a whole new level. I had an incredibly serious break down, which unravelled my mind and destroyed my mental health.

I spend a lot of time using the experiences of those difficult, disastrous and dangerous few months in some of my work. It taught me A LOT.

After that, I was essentially homeless and went to stay with my older sister who was struggling with her own mental health and addiction problems.

I tried to go back to university but my mental health wasnt great and I had another break down, however this time, they got me into a pretty good hospital and I was diagnosed with Bipolar and put on decent medication.

Finally, an answer to my past instability and a shot at a future of sorta stability.

I made the decision to move back up to the midlands for a chance at a fresh start, around a few months into the first lock down in 2020 and the world had gone a bit mad.

From 2020, I spent time working part time or voluntary and the main focus was rebuilding my mental health. I did various roles from lived experience work with a youth justice charity, to dog walking, to a role at a mentoring org, to writing and public speaking, to then landing my dream role working with the best university in the world, in a research role.

LifeStrong Today

I also got 3 dogs, made some incredible friends and have settled my ass down, laser focussed on being the best version of myself.

I always wanted to set up my own kinda org and Im finally in a place to use my unique life experiences to continue changing the world, just a little bit.

I’ve tried to be brief here, but I have a wealth of experience in life and I am thrilled to be able to share it with you all, in my bespoke services, just as unique as me.