Mirrors intern Lindley (LJ) Scott Jr volunteered for Mirrors in 2009 and was so impressed with the programme that he signed on as a participant.“I never had problems,” Mr Scott said, describing himself as someone with questions about himself.Volunteering on the production team, the group tasked with the practical aspects of running a Mirrors residential, Mr Scott found his own training taking a powerful effect on him.“Mirrors affects volunteers, not just participants,” he said.Senior Mirrors assistant coordinator Tory Darrell recommended volunteering.“Tory became like the older brother that I needed. He’d tell me ‘I promise you, this programme will not let you down’.”On the production team, Mr Scott set up challenge courses, prepared paperwork — “all the machinery of organising it” — down to cleaning up after the bonfire of the final night.Mr Scott recalled the core of his issue as being a lack of self-belief that hampered his efforts to apply himself.“It’s held me back from a lot of things I could have done,” he reflected.A transformation seemed to happen even to the characters he described as alarming-looking participants.“Those same guys were leaving the programme in tears. I know they are out there doing better for themselves. I wanted that same thing.”He added that all manner of people have passed through Mirrors, including business owners.“I’ve met managers, people from different cultures. It’s like a community.”Right from the application paperwork, Mr Scott found himself forced into introspection on the past and where he was headed in life.A pre course event at the Bermuda College preceded the June 2010 residential for 18 to 24-year-old men.Participants were informed about the programme and signed a form with their agreements to respect the rules. An enrolment coach ascertained whether each was ready to proceed.Entering the residential felt “like going to jail or boot camp”, he said.“Mind you, it went from 50-something to 40-something, because some guys didn’t feel like it was for them.”Days at the residential began early, with the 8am challenge courses — and rigorous exercise — followed by “the course room, then lunch, then the course room again till dinner at about 6pm. Then we’d be back until 11.30pm or midnight.”Likening the gruelling sessions to “talking therapy”, he said: “The only way you can get the information you need is by speaking up.”Goaded on by Mark Charley from overseas organisation Uncommon Results, Mr Scott said, created “an atmosphere where you got up and starting talking”.He found himself understanding that he had held onto pain from his past that could no longer hurt him again.“It goes back to situations that occurred in your past,” he said. “Some people hold onto it. You don’t get to the future.”For his own bonfire ceremony on the night of the fifth day, participants wrote down “the things we were leaving behind” — and burned them.Back outside, with the help of life coach Jermaine Tucker, Mr Scott spent his nine-month follow up “being held to my goals”.Following the graduation ceremony, he said: “This is when life comes in. This is where I’m at now. I just finished my GED.”A student intern at Mirrors, he is training to be a production manager and dreams of joining the Bermuda Fire Service.Also the father of a little girl, Mr Scott said: “Our relationship is phenomenal. I use things I learned from Mirrors with her. I listen to her.”He added: “I’m also an older brother to four. Just from what I’ve learned, I can have an impact on them and lead by example.”Now a life coach, Mr Scott also coaches in the middle school academic programme Coaching for Success, at Sandys Middle School and Whitney Institute.Enthusing at the New Beginnings $1 Million Campaign by long-standing Mirrors volunteer Kerry Judd, he said: “What she’s pushing for, we need it. If this is what it takes to change a community, let’s go for it.”