How a 20-year-old from Nottingham is inspiring hundreds of young people to turn their back on crime

A young man previously surrounded by crime and negative influences has gone on to become a community ambassador and transform the lives of hundreds of kids.

Growing up in Nottingham, Tranai Todd, now aged 20, found himself struggling to make positive choices due to peer pressure.

The 20-year-old saw firsthand how young people he knew were being lured into being part of criminal gangs, including selling drugs and carrying knives. 

He said:

“I grew up in a very deprived area and when I was around the age of 14, I noticed that people I knew were starting to get involved in knife crime, drug dealing and anti-social behaviour.

“Violence was glamorised on social media, through music videos made by people in my school or recordings of fights that happened there which were posted online.

“I found it hard to get away from all of this because this way of life was normalised and seeing so much violence impacted me even if I didn’t realise it at the time.

"I knew that I wanted to make a better life for myself, and I found that boxing was a distraction from all of this.

“It taught me to be resilient, gave me something to do and allowed me to safely vent my anger and frustrations into something I enjoyed.

“My decision to start boxing meant I was then able to come away from secondary school with a good set of GSCEs unlike many of my peers and I know that without boxing I would have gone down the wrong path.”

From here, Tranai developed his passion for changing young people’s lives through sport.

In 2021 the Live Our Best Life Awards were launched and in the same year, Tranai received three nominations and went on to win the Young Leader of the Year award.

These awards, launched by Nottinghamshire Police, aim to shine a light on the inspiring work of young people across the county.

Tranai even stepped in last minute to host the Live Our Best Life Awards ceremony this year in absence of another host.

He said:

“It’s really rewarding to look back on my own journey and see how far I have come from the struggles I faced growing up.

"The Live Our Best Life Awards has played a big part in shaping my own success and I am sure it will continue to have a positive impact on the lives of those young people that win the award in the future.”

Winning the award spurred Tranai in 2021 to stand in front of the Police and Crime Commissioner where he successfully pitched his business idea.

He was then given £10,000 to test his business as a pilot project and then a further £30,000 to launch Support Through Sport.

The social enterprise aims to bring change to disadvantaged communities through running football and boxing sessions and providing intensive mentoring delivered by former offenders to young people aged between eight to 18.

Since it started three years ago, Support Through Sport has gone on to help thousands of young people and has won a number of awards including the National Crimebeat Awards in 2023 and the Nottingham Housing Heroes Award. 

He added:

“Some of the young people we work with have been involved in robbery and aggravated assault or have been involved in selling drugs and ultimately have ended up being arrested and find themselves in custody.

“We provide wraparound support to these individuals to look at their situation to try and understand what has led them to offend and give them the opportunity to move in a more positive direction.

“Some of our young people have engaged in our development pathway programme, where after they have volunteered 100 hours, they have been successful in securing a paid role as a sports coach."

The young entrepreneur is also a community ambassador for the Violence Reduction Partnership which is a project to tackle serious violence across Nottinghamshire.

Kerry Hall, Engagement and Citizens in Policing Sergeant said:

“It’s great to see the lasting legacy that Nottinghamshire Police’s Live Our Best Life awards continues to have on young people.

"These awards are designed to celebrate and empower the amazing work that young people are doing across Nottinghamshire.

“The kickstart that the awards have given Tranai in enabling him to achieve his full potential is the very reason we run the awards and it’s good to see him use his own lived experience to support disadvantaged communities.”