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Opening a restaurant to help the youth

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My name is Patrick I am 27 years old, I am a chef and I would like to open up my own restaurant not only for myself but a restaurant which trains up young people to teach them to cook and give them a second chance.

I remember coming to England as an illegal immigrant from Jamaica at the age of 7. I came here with my mum and brother however while my mum was working trying to get us a better life here I went down the wrong path. I got myself involved in serious youth violence and at the age of 16 I was looking at death or prison. I was in and out of Trouble with the police at such a young age but thankfully I was able to gain my citizenship here.

My mum had to move us out of Hackney because of all the violence that was happening in the area and moved us to essex. When I moved to essex I was still involved gang violence until I was 18. I remember it like it was yesterday my mum walked in and saw me on a hospital bed. I had all these wires coming out of me because I got myself into a fight and was bottled really bad so subsequently I had lost allot of blood. It was a police officer that saved my life that day. Only when I looked at my mum from that hospital bed and realised the seriousness of what happened I said to her “I’m going to change my life around”.

I got my self my first job in river island however I wasn’t happy because I knew deep down it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Then one day I got a phone call from one of my friends who knew I loved to cook. I used to love cooking Caribbean food at home So he asked me would I be interested in becoming a chef for Jamie Oliver. I thought he was joking and he put me forward. The day came we’re I met Jamie Oliver and he honestly changed my whole life for the better. He gave me a life and a sense of purpose. When I qualified for Jamie Oliver my mum cried and said I made her proud, this was the best moment of my life.

I’ve since then gone onto work for the best restaurants in London and I’ve also cooked for a lot of celebrities through Jamie Oliver and private clients. While I am still a chef full time I dedicated my days off to mentoring young people in gang violence with the met police.

I now wanna set up a restaurant which mentors young people and gives them a second chance like Jamie Oliver did for me. I wanna show them it’s not where you start it’s where you finish. I’m very blessed and lucky to be in this position and I would like to continue to help and bring people together through food and my craft.


I am asking for a £100,000 because that will be enough to get me started and allow me to get everything up on running and to employ people who want to be apart of the programme. This will also help me to get the equipment they need to get this programme going. This also covers the fee for the restaurant for at least a year. 

Organizer

Patrick Campbell
Organizer
England

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