Awareness Project

The death of Jimmy Mizen received much media coverage; much of this coverage has been due to the inspirational response shown by Jimmy’s parents Barry and Margaret Mizen. As a society there is a perception that to be vindictive is the expected reaction. Barry and Margaret try to dispel this notion because of the damage it can do to a person. Barry and Margaret now spend much of their time in schools and prisons sharing Jimmy’s story and encourage thinking and debate on the key issues and consequences of uncontrolled anger and the use of weapons of any sort.

During their school visits they usually address years 10 and 11, although they have spoken to younger year groups and have also been into primary schools. The presentation is by way of a couple of short DVD clips followed by a description of what happened and a talk about how they have managed not to let thoughts of revenge take hold, about what a need for revenge can have on that person and the way it has the potential to act like a poison and can destroy individuals and families. They finish with a question and answer session in which they answer all questions honestly and thoughtfully however challenging. Where possible they will speak individually afterwards to anyone who was unable to share their questions openly. They recently did a presentation to a group of University students and as a result one student was able to share with all an incident in his own life he was struggling with.

They have so far visited a women’s prison, a young offenders institute and are due to visit a men’s prison shortly. As a response to their visit to the women’s prison they received a couple of letters, from inmates, both saying that after listening to Barry and Margaret they were able to let go of issues of anger with family members and had since made contact and sought to re-establish relationships.

It is not easy to continually re visit what happened to their son, but they believe it is something needed and is of great benefit to young people to think and talk about issues of anger and aggression and the question of forgiveness. They also want to aid and encourage young people to seek help if they are the victims of bullying. They are in the process of working with The Kids Task Force who provides resources for schools that deal with all areas of social problems and will specifically be using Jimmy’s story as a way of looking at issues of anger and forgiveness.

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