SMASH LIFE : A NEW BEGINNING
Andy and Matt Smith are brothers who were placed into the UK care system by Social Services after neglectful parenting by their biological parents. Following their placement, they were subjected to unrelenting emotional and physical abuse over an eight-year period from 1990-1998 by the very people who had been charged with their care.
As a result of their trauma, both brothers experienced pent up anger, low self-esteem, feelings of loneliness and suicidal thoughts, originating from the abuse that they had suffered during childhood. This culminated in brushes with the law, failed relationships, huge debt, violence, anxiety, depression, OCD and also impacted on the brothers own sibling relationship.
Over the years since the abuse, Matt and Andy found separate coping mechanisms in music and sport respectively and both found their way into careers supporting children and young people.
In 2018 the brothers united to found the company “Smash Life”. Drawing on the hard lessons that they had learnt from their own abuse and experience of the care system; as well as their combined 38 years professional experience working with young people and families, they set about building an organisation to help those in similar situations.
Offering their own inspirational talks and training to young people and organisations the brothers are able to provide a unique insight into real life lived within the care system.
Their hope is that Smash Life can be used as a support tool by Education, Organisations, Parents, Councils and the Care System, to help prevent children and young people from ever having to experience what they went through.
Our ethos
‘Leading from the heart’
Through collaboration with local authorities, educators, and communities, we aim to break down barriers and provide the resources and encouragement that children need to thrive.
Our creative team of mentors are dedicated to listening actively and responding with kindness, ensuring that every interaction is meaningful. We lead with our hearts, fostering genuine connections that inspire trust and confidence.
Through collaboration with local authorities, educators, and communities, we aim to break down barriers and provide the resources and encouragement that children need to thrive.
We are passionate about making a positive impact, and we approach every challenge creatively with an open mind and a caring spirit.
At Smash Life, we are not just a support system; we are a family. Together, we are committed to smashing through obstacles and building a brighter future for our children, one heartfelt action at a time.
At Smash Life, we believe that true support for the children and young people we work with comes from a place of compassion, empathy, and understanding. Our ethos, “Leading from the Heart,” embodies our commitment to nurturing the potential of every child we work with. We recognize that each child is unique, with their own dreams, challenges, and strengths.
We strive to create a safe and inclusive environment where children feel valued, empowered and that their voice is the most important thing to us.
Our creative team of mentors are dedicated to listening actively and responding with kindness, ensuring that every interaction is meaningful. We lead with our hearts, fostering genuine connections that inspire trust and confidence.
Through collaboration with local authorities, educators, and communities, we aim to break down barriers and provide the resources and encouragement that children need to thrive.
We are passionate about making a positive impact, and we approach every challenge creatively with an open mind and a caring spirit.
At Smash Life, we are not just a support system; we are a family. Together, we are committed to smashing through obstacles and building a brighter future for our children, one heartfelt action at a time.
AWARD WINNING company
Smash Life is an award winning company having won the Mayor of Shrewsbury Gold Award for the Overall Winners in the Youth Category in 2019 and in 2022 the Shropshire Music Awards winner in the ‘Community Champion’ category. We have also been nominated for the National Community Organisation Award for AGE at The National Diversity Awards 2020 in association with ITV news and have been mentioned as a key support service in the Telford & Wrekin Council Outstanding OFSTED report in 2020.
With Smash Life’s support, our partner Telford & Wrekin (T&W), were the first Council (outside of London) to go from Requires Improvement (2016) to OUTSTANDING (2020) and the only Council in the West Midlands and North West to be given an OUTSTANDING rating.
Our service has continued to provide T&W support, leading to further fantastic results for the Virtual School and in July 2024 they were awarded an OUTSTANDING rating for the second time!
SERVICES THAT WE OFFER
Smash Life is creative in its approach to reaching the children and young people we work with. It is limiting to just sit in a room and ask a young person to just “talk about it” and this can be oppressive for some young people.
By bringing activities such as sport, music, games, walks and trips to our mentoring and other services, we have found that they provide better engagement and overall positive results for the young people. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive in this area with the young people enjoying and looking forward to their sessions. As a further and practical addition, we now also offer an NOCN accreditation which can be completed alongside our mentoring service!
We offer a wide selection services, from various support services and training to keynote speeches and inspirational talks. Tapping or clicking the tabs below will provide you with an overview of each service. To find out more detail, please visit our ‘SERVICES’ page by clicking or tapping HERE.
Catering to young people and professionals, our Talks focus on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Abuse, Complex Trauma and Safeguarding and are designed to help professionals understand children and young peoples’ behaviour, change approaches and perceptions and bring a reality to practice that can’t be obtained through books. Young people will receive a hard hitting, factual story that will help them to understand that they are not alone with their own trauma’s and can build up their own skills and resilience, following the positive example set by the Smash Life brothers.
We offer a ‘Smash Life NOCN Qualification’ that young people aged 11-18 can complete alongside our bespoke mentoring sessions! This qualification provides a way for the young person to learn new skills that they will be able to take into further education, training or employment.
Smash Life is creative in its approach to mentoring. We are able to engage and connect through activities and positive diversions, which enable the young people to open up to us so that we can really focus on their voice.
By bringing sport, music, games, walks, and trips to expand on the Mentoring we have achieved better results and the young people actually enjoy and look forward to the sessions. We believe that showing our own vulnerability will inspire those we mentor to share their own.
As an extension to our group work and mentoring services we also provide ‘Mediation’. We have seen many examples of how low-level conflict can quickly escalate into bigger issues for the individuals involved and at a cost to services (NHS/Police/Courts) and sometimes families and the local community. We will attend a meeting in any setting to try and resolve issues between two parties or individuals. Sometimes a neutral mediator can provide a safe platform for individuals to work through their differences without violence being used, whilst at the same time learning how to talk instead of acting through fear or responding to threats of intimidation.
We firmly believe that by providing a space to air grievances that can be listened to and resolved peacefully at ‘ground level’, we can help to tackle some of societies bigger issues – like the rise in knife crime and other criminal / anti social activities. We are all about proactive, early intervention work that can help to create communities inhabited by people who are emotionally intelligent.
We also offer training to groups of professionals working with young people as part of their ongoing professional development. This will not only help to improve practice but also create better outcomes for the young people and families that we all aim to work alongside and empower.
‘Life Story Work’ is a vital and important piece of work for young people in the care system.
Both Smash Life Directors Andy & Matt experienced Life Story Work whilst growing up in the care system and know first-hand how important this work is. We have a dedicated staff member who can support young people who may benefit from Life Story Work.
Some young people in care do not get the opportunity to do this important piece of work due to high waiting lists and eligibility. This work is so important as it can provide young people with a wider knowledge as to who they are, where they have come from and why they are in care. This can help them moving forwards and learning to adapt to their new surroundings.
Our dedicated Life Story Worker can use lots of creativity and work alongside young people, carers and other professionals to create something the young people can keep and look back on in years to come. As well as being a therapeutic intervention, this can also be a fun creative journey for the young person.
“The research has shown us that TLSW strengthens the attachment of a child to a primary care giver, which then supports improvement in peer relationships, education outcomes, reduction in trauma symptoms experienced, reduction of high-risk behaviours, improves mental health and wellbeing and overall, a greater sense of identity” Dr James Lucas.
We are able to use our experience of growing up in the social care system and our many years of working within it, to provide advice and guidance to your organisation on how to create a more young person centred service.
We can observe your practice, or meet with your staff teams to discuss solutions to problems you face and create a safe space for staff to open up and be honest about the challenges they encounter, so that you can identify further training to empower them. We can also advise on things like policies and procedures, safe working practices and ideas based around hearing and capturing the voice of the child throughout the structure of your organisation.
This service can also be provided under the guise of a “mystery customer” or undercover independent examiner, in order to provide your organisation with ‘real life results’ and professional feedback on how you are doing in areas that you want to find out about.
This training is also available to young people who may be within your organisation and require assistance in specific areas or career advice / guidance.
OUR PARTNERS
We are proud to work alongside the Council’s, Schools, Businesses and Groups listed below.
