Michael Porter's Story
27 years old. Youth worker and mentor. Married with two children. Lives in Homerton.

Michael has been working as a youth worker for six years. He is is passionate about his work and dedicated to being a positive role model to the young people. As a teenager he lost a lot of friends to drugs, violence and prison. He wants to do whatever he can to create positive opportunities for the young people living in the area so that they do not go down the wrong paths. Michael is stunned to find out that Nathan, one of the young people who attended the youth club, whom he also mentored and treated like a younger brother, has been murdered. Nathan, was an aspiring poet and a genuinely hard working, positive, talented young person has been murdered in a senseless attack causing Michael to face his inner demons, and deal with the anger that he had pushed down for many years. He is in turmoil, and has conflicting feelings that threaten to ruin the work and commitment he has put in over the last six years. He is about to be tested and he has no idea what the outcome is going to be.

Monologue

Hey. How you doing? My names Michael Porter…um…my friends call me Mike, and...uh…what can I say?...um…I live in Hackney, east London with my girlfriend Natalie and my two kids. My son Stefan is 4 years old, and my daughter Sharna is 2. I’m 27 years old, and I work as a youth worker in Homerton. I’ve been working with young people since I was about 21, and to be honest with you it don’t feel like work. I just love it. It feels like it’s something that I was meant to do, do you know what I mean? You know when you feel like you have some sort of purpose, or path? It’s weird.

Sometimes, I don’t even know if I’m out of my depth, but I believe in these kids. I believe in what I do, and I want to be someone that they can turn to…you know? If I had…if I had someone to look up to or turn to when I was younger…I dunno. Just someone that I could talk to…someone who could really hear what I was saying, I think a lot of things would have turned out differently for me…for all of us. I lost a lot of friends, and it’s…it’s something you never get over. Never. And there’s this anger inside you, that just eats away at you, and you can either fight it or block it out…and I’m still trying to figure out which way is the easiest…and I’m scared that…

But the most important thing is that I’m a good father, and a good role model to these kids…otherwise who am I.