Ewart Brown, the former premier, has called on the Bermuda Government to increase funding for a charity devoted to getting young people’s lives back on track.

Dr Brown, who backed setting up the Mirrors programme as one of his priorities when he became premier in 2006, said he hoped the new administration would increase funding for the charity.

He added: “My hope is that the PLP will see its way to keep it and expand it.”

Dr Brown was speaking as Mirrors, which had its budget slashed by a third by the last Progressive Labour Party government in 2011, prepared to celebrate a decade of helping young people.

Mentorship for the island’s young men had been sought in the 1990s by several local figures alarmed by antisocial behaviour at sports events.

Uncommon Results, a global transformation programme founded in 1995 by life coach Mark Charley, caught Dr Brown’s attention and was the blueprint for the Mirrors programme. Dr Brown added that the One Bermuda Alliance government, elected in December 2012, had changed the focus of Mirrors.

He said: “The previous government diluted it and changed the direction somewhat, which was their prerogative. I am hoping that we will be able to restore some of the elements that were there before. We need to get back to the Uncommon Results approach.

“But I am happy that Mirrors has persisted. That means it has shown results.

Mirrors co-ordinator Kimberley Jackson said she is as impressed as ever with Mirrors’ programme of personal transformation.

But she added that, despite public concern over the island’s epidemic of violence, a shortage of volunteers and funding cutbacks have challenged the programme for at-risk youth.

Ms Jackson said: “Mirrors has made the difference in our community with our young people and my staff.”

Ms Jackson added that making Mirrors a department of Government could help.

She said: “Ten years of data and results show our success. We need to make that decision that will help stabilise the programme’s staffing as we move forward.”

Ms Jackson added that the Mirrors curriculum has evolved, but the foundation remained the same.

Ms Jackson explained: “The first ten years, we dealt with hardcore individuals in the schools who needed that confrontational look at themselves to work out who they were and what made them tick.”

The curriculum is still focused on life skills, but has added academic components, while Mirrors has also seen “increasing self-reported depression and mental health issues”.

Ms Jackson said that was due to young people feeling more comfortable talking about their problems.

Mirrors has taken on younger children from the island’s middle schools and last year launched the SuperCamp Quantum Learning programme to deliver classroom skills.

SuperCamps are showing “the same results”, Ms Jackson said, and required fewer volunteers. The latest camp called for 15 adults, and recruited ten.

Ms Jackson said: “Volunteers have been a challenge.”

Ms Jackson traced the problem back to the exodus of expatriates, who often volunteered as the global recession hit the island.

But as gun and knife deaths continue to rock the island, she called for concerned members of the community to step up and join Mirrors.

One volunteer and Mirrors employee who has never looked back is Iesha Musson. Ms Musson came to Mirrors as a troubled youngster in its first year.

She told The Royal Gazette in 2008 that without it, she would “definitely be incarcerated”.

“I was a very angry young adult, misguided and confused,” said Ms Musson, who is now a married mother of three and working for Mirrors as an administrative assistant.

But Ms Musson said Mirrors helped her realise where she had gone wrong.

She added: “You realise that you can’t blame other people. You realise that it’s not their fault. It’s your choice.”

She was speaking as SuperCamp participants played outside during their break.

Ms Musson was encouraged by Mirrors staff to finish school and now, at 26, she is pursuing a degree in psychology.

She said: “This programme is actually my life.

“My dream before I close my eyes each night is to bring a safe haven for children in Bermuda — a hub of resources. Mirrors is helping me to build on that.”

And Ms Musson predicted a new generation of volunteers would come forward to help the programme.

She said: “It’s coming. More and more people are getting frustrated.

“It only takes one person to step up, and more will follow.”