Reformed criminals are a new source of hope for troubled teens as a community group in Langley chooses to pioneer the concept of getting help from those who came from the last place that parents would want their teens to end up.
The group, named Status, was actually started by the community activist Terry Smith along with his wife Sue. Together, they hoped that they could reach troubled teenagers in their area by letting them relate to those adults who may have gone through problems likened to theirs when they were teens. Of course, there will also be trained local mentors included in the program aside from those reformed criminal speakers.

Founder Terry Smith said: "People are starting to say it’s not a bad a idea to have people who have been through the system as mentors to young people, and I’ve been saying this for years. Ex-offenders are the ones who have been there and faced the choices some of these young people face.”
He added "Of course there is a risk in doing something like this, and they’re going to be times when it does explode, but we should be taking risks – if we didn’t we would still be in caves too scared to come out."
The group also wants to be able to let the troubled teenagers interact with their reformed criminal mentors directly outside the program hours. For this to occur, they would be meticulously vetted and CRB-checked outside office hours.
Smith said "Youth work isn’t just needed in the week. The key times are on Friday and Saturday nights, when places are shut and we need to give these young people a place to go. With the Millennium Centre we had that – we don't want a community centre, we want a youth centre, just for young people to go where they can be as loud as they want."
Status has made it one of its objectives since it was founded last spring to help troubled teens who do not feel comfortable in community centers in the area.
Middleton Township and the Youth Opportunity Fund have both helped finance the group.

Smith said "What we’re trying to do should cost millions. But we're trying to do it on a small budget. We're getting lots of support from people but we keep facing lots of barriers, especially over money."