Iesha Dill, 17, is sure without Mirrors she would be staring out a tiny window from prison and Joe Coy, 17, believes he would have been just another youth in trouble.

While Wendelle Lightbourne, 18, is now fast tracking through the Department of Marine and Ports focused on his diesel engineering degree.

And all three of these teens agree on one thing — without the Mirrors programme they would not be where they are today — finishing their degrees and getting jobs.

Ms. Dill said: "I am taking my GED while working at Mirrors. Without it I would be locked-up, I would definitely be incarcerated."

While Mr. Coy said: "They always said I was a bad student, but now I am more confident. I realise what I can accomplish in life."

Mr. Lightbourne added: "It just helped me to go on to what I really wanted to do; what I really liked."

Launched last year, the nine month programme was initially for youth between the ages of 15 and 18, however, Social Rehabilitation Minister Dale Butler yesterday announced with its success it would expand.

Now the programme will also be open to those between 18 and 21 because, Mr. Butler said, there are few options for support during those years.

He said: "When the programme was launched in 2007, at risk youth between 15 and 18 became the focal point of efforts to address our increasingly disenfranchised youth.

"Now we're stepping forward to extend the much needed benefits of this programme to 18-21 year olds offering a year round programme to this target group.

"We discovered that while programmes were being made available to 15 to 18 year olds there was increasing anecdotal evidence to suggest that 18-21 year olds were being neglected and were resurfacing to engage in non-productive activities and in some cases ending up in the criminal justice system."

Starting out the delegates (those between 18 and 21) sign-up for a residential programme, the next of which will be from November 17 to the 22, with a precourse date on November 13.

It is held, currently, at the Willowbank Resort, though recent announcements by the Ministry raised hopes of a permanent location for the programme including such areas as Darrell's, Port's and Paget Islands as possibilities.

Then nine months of seminars follows with one-on-one coaching and really, said Kimberley Jackson, Coordinator of Mirrors, a lifetime of support.

However, Ms. Jackson and Tory Darrell, assistant Coordinator of the programme said they needed more volunteers to make sure the programme could continue.

Ms. Jackson said: "We are always looking for volunteers. We could use more life coaches and an on-site team. We need 35 more for the life coaches.

"We are pushing that drive right now. We have 18 delegates (youth between 18 and 21) for November and we are really looking to put 40 into the course.

"When they graduate though, they are still open to come to the office. If they need support we will give them what they need."

For more information on enrolling in the programme or to volunteer contact the programme at: 294-9291 or email them at: mirrors@gov.bm.