Professor Green on Childhood Struggles, ADHD & Finding Community at Youth Zones

**Jake Humphrey** (0:00)
Before we get into today's episode, a massive thank you to Apple Podcasts for including High Performance in their 2026 Creators We Love campaign. If you've just found the show, welcome. Nice to have you with us. Head to Apple Podcasts to see mine and Damian's favourite episodes from the last six years of High Performance.

**Stephen Manderson** (0:18)
I was shocked to just see the facilities here. They're incredible, especially at a time when, forgive me if this is the wrong number, but you know, there's been, I think it's a 70% closure of youth clubs. That was where I found kind of my home and my belonging. I guess it was the same for a lot of us. We didn't really fit in elsewhere. I couldn't get to school. I just couldn't, you know, rage. There was no language which could help that process and it would be traumatic all the way up until I got to school and then I struggled a lot.

**Jake Humphrey** (0:46)
What were you looking for, do you think?

**Stephen Manderson** (0:48)
Probably community, a space of belonging. I never really felt like I fitted in very well anywhere else. Thank you for asking me something I've never been asked.

**Jake Humphrey** (0:58)
That is the voice of Stephen Manderson or as you might know him, Professor Green. So Steve grew up in Hackney and what he just described, that absence, that feeling of nowhere to go and nobody quite seeing you. Well, that is the reality for hundreds of thousands of young people in this country right now. And today I'm really proud to say that we're bringing you this episode in partnership with the players of the Postcode Lottery because we went to visit a place called Future, the Onside Youth Zone in Barking and Dagenham, one of 19 Youth Zones across the UK supporting 60,000 young people built specifically for the places that need it most. And we went to Future to find out what these places actually do, but also why they matter more than ever.
I want you to hear Steve's story because once you know where he came from, the conversation that follows with Jamie, the man who runs the Youth Zone, with some incredible teenagers, Olivia and Lily. And can I just say, I've thought about those two a lot since we recorded this episode. You're going to hear from them and they live this reality every single day. So why is this episode important to you? It's important to you because this might not be something that you require in your life. But it's absolutely something that so many young people across the UK need. They need to be seen, they need to be heard, they need to matter. And thanks to the players of the Postcode Lottery, there are places that make them feel exactly like that.
So to start with, let's go meet Stephen.

**Stephen Manderson** (2:26)
Stephen, hello mate, what's happening in you, all right?

**Jake Humphrey** (2:27)
Nice to see you, man. You good?

**Stephen Manderson** (2:29)
Yeah.

**Jake Humphrey** (2:30)
So, look at this place. I mean, when someone said we're coming to speak to each other at a youth club, I didn't have this in mind. I mean, this is insane.

**Stephen Manderson** (2:37)
No, the youth club that I grew up spending most of my time in was nothing like this facility.

**Jake Humphrey** (2:42)
When you first were using a youth club as a kid, what was it? What can you remember of that building?

**Stephen Manderson** (2:49)
It was right next to the swing park in my estate. It was plastic chairs.
There were games to play. At a point, I think we even had a computer in there.

**Jake Humphrey** (2:58)
No way.

**Stephen Manderson** (2:58)
Maybe the first PlayStation or something.

**Jake Humphrey** (3:00)
Climbing wall?

**Stephen Manderson** (3:01)
There was no climbing wall. But we used to do activities. We'd play football. There'd be trips sometimes to Roller City, which was a skating rink in Edmonton. But nothing like this. I was shocked to just see the facilities here. They're incredible, especially at a time when, forgive me if this is the wrong number, but there's been, I think, it's a 70 percent closure of youth clubs. Of all youth clubs have disappeared as have the staff. Then the remaining staff, how the kids access them, if there are no youth centers where they're familiar with them working. So it's incredible to see something like this one, which undoubtedly is going to literally change the outcomes of kids. It's encouraging physical activity. All of the conversation around how poor kids' mental health is these days. People obviously suffered when we were kids, but not in the way that kids are today, not to the extent that kids do today. And I think a lot of that comes down to the lack of physical activity.