“Donation of more than £3000 to honour Tony Selby’s memory”  

We were pleased to meet with Judith Selby and Jemma Keegan (wife and daughter of Tony Selby). Tony Selby was a local man from Pershore and who sat on the Youth Offender Panels for Gloucestershire and West Mercia, he occasionally chaired the panels when needed and volunteered for the last 16 years in this role and as a lay advisor at MAPPA meetings (the police, probation and prison services Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements). Tony passed away suddenly on 23rd June. To commemorate Tony’s life and contribution, his wife Judith and daughter Jemma requested that donations be made to YSS – in recognition of the work that we do and how close this would be to Tony’s heart. A few days before his death, Tony wrote the following statement about volunteering which echoed with our values.      

  

Written by Tony (Anthony Lewis Selby) at the request of the Youth Justice Service for Volunteers Week - June 2021

I have been involved in volunteering for many years now. Why? The sun is shining, the countryside beckons, and wouldn’t I rather be on my bike? But ……. 

What is fascinating is how one thing leads to another. It doesn’t matter how old you are, there is always something to learn, some new experience and always a feeling of doing something for the good of the community. The area that I fell into (yes, fell into) was the whole area of offending and justice. I had no legal background, no background in social work or anything remotely like that. 

Volunteering has opened up a whole new world to me, a world I knew nothing about before but one that I know an awful lot more about now. After several other volunteering roles, I found myself in the YJS. My colleagues doing Youth Justice Referral Panels come from a wide range of backgrounds but, what we do have in common, is a strong desire to help young people who, for many reasons, have lost their way and who are at risk of being criminalised and getting into that loop of offending, criminalisation, reoffending. In other words, wasting their lives through making bad decisions at a young age. Being realistic, not everyone can be helped, but, for many young people who have disadvantaged backgrounds where no one appeared to care, to realise that someone who is not being paid is offering help in their own time, can be quite uplifting. 

Is it always rewarding? No. Sometimes it is frustrating but for me the rewards outweigh the downs. 

Yes, sometimes I would rather be on my bike but somehow I keep coming back. 

Anthony Lewis Selby, June 2021