Jacob G’s Story

My name is Jacob Green, I am 34 years old, and I work as a Community Link Worker for a charity in Wellingborough, North Northamptonshire.

I spent the first half of my life growing up in South East London, Leeds, Derby, and Greater London. My upbringing was quite challenging and I attended roughly 8 different primary and secondary schools due to family problems.

I had my first drink and started smoking at the age of 9 and started to use drugs by the time I was 12 years old. Things were quite chaotic at home. I had stayed in a few refuges before I relocated to Leeds with my dad, but got sent back to London and was on the thin line of going to jail by the age of 16.

Even though a lot was going on in my life, I still managed to finish school and college, and I graduated from university, where I studied Criminology and Sociology. Upon graduating, my first job was as a Probation officer at the London Probation Service, however, I lost this job due to ending up on probation myself.

From the age of 18 until my late 30s, substance misuse, offending, probation, mental health, suicidal thoughts, and bad behaviour were all a part of my life. I was not a prolific offender, but I was a prolific service user of the probation service. In fact, I am still on probation until December 2024 due to a substance-induced mental breakdown.

In March 2023, I realised that I was a ticking time bomb. I was on remand for possession of a bladed article and had cuts on my hand from a knife I didn’t even remember I was holding.

I prayed to God for help to break those chains of addiction, violence, and self-destruction I had in my life. My eyes, my mind, and my heart began to open to the damage I was causing not only to myself but also to my family, my children, and my community. I was at a crossroads and recall sitting in my cell thinking that unless I sought support to try and change my life, I would either end up in jail for a very long time or in a grave.

Upon release from custody on the 3rd of July 2023 and with the amazing support of my probation officer Gail, I was referred to support agencies such as Catch22, Maximus, and The Forward Trust. Simultaneously, I was also regularly attending AA groups and church meetings, whilst studying counselling and mental health courses.

It was at this time that I started to develop my first designs for LS Lifestyle, my own headwear brand that was sobriety-related and supported those in active addiction or recovery.

Working with The Forward Trust

I first started working with my enterprise coach, Stephen Anderson, in March 2024. Stephen was very supportive and encouraging, and he made me realise how far my business idea could go. I enrolled on the Forward Enterprise ‘Ex-offenders living in London’ programme and received tips on what I needed to consider and we had insightful consultations over Zoom.

I was allocated an enterprise mentor, Sid, who still has weekly meetings with me to help mould my business idea and make it a reality. My relationship with Sid has been so beneficial, as I was quite a novice in the business side of things and am still learning. Sid helped me to understand my business model more, gave me the tools to further enhance my current business idea, and offered me advice on how to make my brand a sustainable business model.

As part of an enterprise project at Forward, I was invited to attend a Dragons Den-style event at the London offices of the Financial Times in June 2024. I received intensive support through Stephen and Sid and I pitched my business idea to a room full of professionals at the Financial Times. Although I did not win, I received great feedback from the panel and I was also able to network with the guests at the event.

Future plans

The next steps for LS Lifestyle is to set it up as a Community Interest Company in 2025. I shall be spending the rest of 2024 continuing to build the brand, develop more of a social media presence, and create a website that will enable me to sell my products and also offer support to people.

I am also looking at attending various relevant tradeshows to raise awareness of my products and services.

I have plans for a fashion shoot in Jamaica this month once I’ve finalised my business idea. I then plan to approach potential business partners, charitable foundations, and investors for grants and funding to help bring this idea to life.

I am very excited at the prospect of owning and running my own business and look forward to working hard to achieve my ambitions.

I currently have headwear products in ten different colours and footwear products in two which are ready for promotion.