Jonathan Bellamy spoke with Watchman to find out more

Watchman

With four fantastic reggae albums to his name, Watchman, surprisingly, isn't an artist looking for fame and fortune. Jonathan Bellamy caught up with him to find out more about his baby RAP Mentors (a programme to help assist young people by giving them a positive role model); something which has now seen him appointed as a national mentor! Jonathan began by asking who the people were that he's looking to help.

Watchman: Well you know anybody male; although I'm working on a women's mentors programme at the moment. I deal with young people that are involved in guns, knife crime, anything to do with gang related issues. But I'm also dealing with young people that just say, "Listen I need a positive role model in my life...I need a positive figure in my life to help me and maybe to get me to the next level." So we're providing male mentors alongside with an APS approved - which is the national standard benchmark for mentoring, to guide and support a young person.

Jonathan: And I believe you've been working with young people for about ten years, is that right?

Watchman: Yes that's right.

Jonathan: How did you get into that? What's your story? How did you get into caring and valuing young people?

Watchman: To be honest, you know when I became a Christian, the doors opened up for me to go into the prisons and begin to talk to the young men within the prisons institutions. And I did that in a young offender's institution. The governor at the time, Governor Pullman Waring, said, listen you're having such a great impact on those lads, do you mind taking up a post in the prison service and just supporting these young men. So that's initially how I got into it. And also the issues that they are currently facing are issues that are very dear to my heart; I have faced them as well as a young child.

Jonathan: I was going to ask you about that. Can you relate specifically to a lot of the issues that young people suffer today?

Watchman: Most definitely. I mean as a teenager I remember being stitched up by the police. I was framed about having a knife on me, that I did not have. I had a lot of resentment towards the police. It ended up with me going in and out of prison for assaults on police officers and it left me with a criminal record.

Jonathan: How did you break out of that cycle?

Watchman: You know for me - the truth is that God kind of met with me when I was in prison. He spoke to me through His word, the Bible, as He does many times to us. And He said I've called you to be a watchman. Then I left - came out of prison. A year later I gave my life to the Lord and I realised that I'm a watchman (laughs) you know, and that's how it kind of started for me. The positive way I would say for me was starting with a decision and keeping it through with a determination.

Jonathan: That's fantastic and now you're passing that on to a younger generation coming through. What kind of feedback do you get from the young guys themselves? Do you have any success stories?

Watchman: Yes. There was a young man last year, recently appointed on to the RAP Mentors programme. He'd been kicked out of school. His family's been involved in some sad serious crimes of violence. Two young girls, one of them was murdered in Croydon. And they gave me this young person and they said, "Look we've kicked him out of school; he's stabbed someone; a pupil with scissors". And I said, look, bring him on the program, give him a chance. And now that young man is now back in school. He's currently sixteen years old and he's doing eight GCSEs. It's an amazing story.

Because what it is, it's about being there for them. It isn't so much about getting them in all these activities, although they are important; but it's just being there as a support; being someone that that young person can talk to, someone that would show that young person love and also give them a hope and expectation of something good. A lot of young people, they lack hope at the moment, so we aim to give them that hope.

Jonathan: One of the things that made such a big difference in your own life was that you found a faith, and obviously you'd feel that Jesus transformed your life. Where does faith fit in to what you're doing with RAP Mentors?