The teen who grew up in crisis but turned her life around

“My mum was a drug addict for as long as I can remember,” said Chanyta Buckley, “so I thought I’d end up choosing drugs over a future.”

Despite growing up in crisis, the Bournemouth teenager is striving to prove to other vulnerable girls and women that they too can turn their lives around.

Chanyta, 19, has volunteered to help steer local charity Safempowerment, which inspired her to begin to make changes when she was still at school.

As demand for its services continues to rise, the organisation in Dorset is expanding.

Chanyta said she asked social services to put her into care after a particularly harrowing period with her mum.

Recalling the experience, she said: “To put myself in foster care, it was a really big decision, but it was the best one, I wouldn’t go back and change it.

“I probably wouldn’t admit it when I first went into care, I’d probably tell you I hated it, but it changed my life.”

In 2021, while at Glenmoor and Winton Academies, she was interviewed by BBC South about another pivotal life experience.

Having been identified as potentially “at risk”, she was enrolled on a course run by Safempowerment.

Four years later, it is not just Chanyta’s appearance that has changed.

She believes the charity helped eradicate her suffocating belief that she had no future.

She said: “They would always tell us, there’s more than just your upbringing, you don’t have to play the cards you’re dealt and you don’t have to keep trying to fix things that are broken. It just empowers you.”

Chanyta is now a mum herself and said she would not have a clue how to parent without her “wonderful” foster parents and wider birth family.

“I genuinely didn’t think I’d live past my teenage years, but I’m nearly 20, I’ve got a three year old,” she said.

“I’m studying law and I love it so much. I want to be a solicitor and I want to advocate for vulnerable young people.”

Along with juggling her law course with motherhood, Chanyta is now also a volunteer trustee of Safempowerment.

The charity’s founder, Sharon Ellis-Gillard, is delighted.

“She’s turned her life around,” she said. “Now she’s putting back into the charity, which is just amazing, I don’t think she appreciates what she brings.

She believes she makes the “best trustee” because “she understands the young girls we work with because she was one of them.”

The charity is now expanding by creating two community interest companies.

One has already started providing alternative education in Dorset to children who have been excluded or cannot cope with school.

The other will be a therapeutic cafe in Poole – a “safe” place that will also offer first jobs to vulnerable people.

Sharon and her team of former police officers and staff have become increasingly aware of a growing need for help.

She added: “We have just got bigger and bigger, which is sad to say.”

The team also work with survivors of abuse like Hannah – not her real name – whose struggle with drug and alcohol addiction left her exposed to “awful” bouts of domestic violence.

Hannah said: “The whole of my life was a mass of chaos and I literally couldn’t cope.

“I was drinking a hell of a lot, I had just got myself down to such rock bottom that I thought I was worthless so it isn’t until now that I’ve finally been able to stop the rollercoaster, because it was killing me.”

Hannah has been sober for well over a year now with the help of her local addiction recovery programme, Reach, and mentoring by Sharon, funded by social services.

Sceptical at first, Hannah remembers having three sessions a week to help her build self-esteem and self-belief.

She said she was “thrilled” and “proud” of her progress.

“It’s amazing what power and strength you can find, you can change your life to be better.”

Both Chanyta and Sharon’s commitment to empowering girls and women to make meaningful changes will be demonstrated this week, when they and other supporters jump out of a plane and skydive for the first time to raise much-needed funds.

A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line.