By Geraldine Blake
I’ve been to two events on the summer riots this week. On Wednesday the Guardian, LSE and JRF launched their research “Reading the Riots”, the result of interviewing 270 people who were involved. There was a wealth of interesting data and discussion at this event, but I came away with a sinking feeling that the reasons that many of those interviewed gave for taking part in the riots last summer will still be there next summer – if not even more acutely.
The government set up an Independent Panel on the Riots, Communities and Victims, who have also just released their interim report – another fascinating piece of work. The Panel are now looking at what can be done to prevent riots happening again. The Chair of the Panel, Darrah Singh, was struck by the words of a young man he visited in prison who said he had taken part because “I have no hopes and I have no dreams”. I was invited to share with the Panel the Community Links experience of how we help young people have hopes and dreams for their future.
Last year we worked with well over 5,000 young people – through our school for children who’ve been excluded from mainstream education, our youth clubs, our specialist advice & guidance service, our targeted NEETs and into-employment programmes, and our Street Action Team which goes out in advance of the local police to the places where trouble is kicking off, and diverts young people into more constructive activities.
Across all of our work with young people, we have one common approach. We value who people are, and we focus on their potential for the future rather than the (sometimes very long) record of what has gone wrong in the past. This is incredibly powerful – for example in our school, where we can say to a young person who may have been excluded many times “What you did yesterday doesn’t matter to me. It’s what you do today and tomorrow that’s important”. We build a deep value relationship of trust and respect – made possible in many cases by the fact that many of our frontline workers experienced problems themselves when they were young, and are able to say “I understand where you are because I was there too. But I made a decision to change my life”. With the young person, we co-design a programme of support and activities that is right for them, recognising that the challenges they face are often complex and that no one size intervention fits all. And finally, we stay with them for as long as they need us, not just to the point where they have returned to school, started a training course or found work. It’s often in the first few months that things can go wrong, and our frontline workers are there for the young person to turn to when they need to talk things through.
I see the journey that young people make with our support. When they first come through our door many are wary, angry even, shoulders and hoods up, responding with a shrug to the question from well meaning visitors “what do you want to do with your life?” A few weeks later, these same young people are able to articulate some hopes. Three months, and they will confidently stand up and present what they plan to do, the steps they are taking to get there, their experience of trying so far, what they have learnt from new connections with businesses, schools, mentors.
The government is announcing one new initiative after another for young people developed in response (partly) to last summer’s riots and also to the dramatic increase in youth unemployment – although in totality these still don’t amount to what they cut in the first place. We recognise that resources are limited but we’d point out two things: our intensive approach with troubled young people works, but it’s not cheap and it’s not quick. However, the alternative – a lost generation of young people who don’t have hope and who can’t realise their dreams, is extremely expensive and will last a lifetime. So Let’s start sooner: young people often reach us when things have already gone wrong for them. The earlier we can take action the better. We know that on the estates where we have community centres, crime and anti-social behaviour drops by up to 60%. Leaving aside the cost to the state, that’s a lot of young people without a criminal record, who will therefore find it easier to get work, and are a lot less likely to riot next summer.
This year’s Guardian Christmas Charity Appeal is, as editor Alan Rusbridger explains, to benefit charities who give young people the hopes and dreams Geraldine describes above, and Community Links is delighted to be one of the recipients. All day tomorrow (Saturday) Guardian journalists including Alan will be manning the donation line, so please do call. Full details are on the Guardian site.