This article was created and developed by Amanda (below left), an Intern working in the Training and Consultancy department and Natalie (below right) who is currently undergoing a work experience placement for two weeks with Participation Works.

We were invited to this workshop as Natalie Jeal thought it would be an interesting experience for us to learn and gain a better understanding of what was going on in London in regards to crime. She felt that we, as young people ourselves, would be able to relate and input relevant and valuable thoughts to what was being discussed. 

The presentation was delivered by a youth group called Peer Outreach. They described themselves as a pool of young people based at City Hall in the Children’s and Young people unit, and their aims include to better assist young Londoners by improving the services available to them and to give young Londoners a voice that they can actively use to better their lives and decision-making.

The event was all about the topic of crime; gang violence, guns and knife crimes amongst young people in London, particularly from poorer backgrounds. Ways in which we could try and tackle it to stop all the deaths of young people was addressed over issues that could have been solved by possessing certain skills such as effective communication instead of anger and lack of respect.  We wanted to grasp a better understanding of why this level of crime was happening. Most of the group felt these young people do not really understand the importance of talking and listening to each other.

The main questions that we all had on our lips was ‘why is this crime all happening?’ and ‘what will it take to stop?’

We gained a lot of feedback from the attendees on what we thought about the topic as a whole.

There was a panel of 8 members of the Peer Outreach team that took turns to speak to us and introduce their role. A PowerPoint presentation provided visual stimulation that included valuable and interesting information. This creative method proved effective. Each of the members stood up and spoke more in detail about what was written. The graphics and illustrations were very impressive and went well with topic of gun, gang and knife crime. 

After the initial presentation we were instructed to split up into groups of 6, where we had very helpful discussions and there was constructive criticism on authorities and the police force. 

One particular example of this criticism was police stop and searches. One member thought it was a good thing and that it should remain on the government’s agenda to help stop this crime, but other members including us thought the opposite and believed that this method only caused friction between authorities and young people. We thought that it was not a good idea as it promoted discrimination and typical stereotyping of all young people as a whole.

Useful feedback from different organisations e.g. youth clubs was shared on how they use methods to help young people engage and communicate with each other.
One particular member of the group who described the government to be uncaring and not investing enough money in tactics and methods already proven to have worked, but instead spending unnecessary money on new techniques.

Also during this time we answered the following questions:  

• Why are we here today?
• What is the situation?
• Why is it happening?

These questions were all answered on A2 sheets of paper, which we had to feedback to the whole group. This took around 45 minutes. In this time we were able to talk and understand why people wrote what they wrote on the sheets and elaborated on their views and beliefs. 

Rebecca Palmer who was the Strategic Development Officer for Children and Young People Participation, spoke for a long length about her role co-ordinating and facilitating Peer Outreach. She even spoke about her own experiences as a parent on her daughter retaliating against authorities.

We discussed recommendations on ways to improve on how we deal with knife, gun and gang culture in London and came up with 5 key areas that we felt would make a difference if implemented on young people and these were:

• More positive role models for these young people
• Educating parents on how to communicate more effectively with their children
• Young people meeting criminals to deter them from criminal activity
• Wider opportunities for the young people to develop and grow positively e.g. social activities and clubs
• Making poverty history e.g. more employment opportunities for young people

We also felt that by introducing more creative ways to help young people develop, become more independent and more open minded e.g. through these social clubs with dance, drama music and art workshops, would help their social skills and communication skills develop and therefore provide them with the right skills to interact with lots more people, get employment and generally gain the right amount of confidence to succeed in life. Confidence is a major factor when it comes to engaging with people from different backgrounds in different environments. We feel that a lot of young people relate to creative methods and they also enjoy this.

Young people need all the support they can get from positive and mature adults who can offer guidance. For those young people who feel that life brings no purpose to them and engaging in criminal activities need inspiration from others who have made it successfully in life and can be a role model for them to follow.

The key outcomes of the meeting was that we shared really valuable information, thoughts and experiences that would hopefully give not just Peer Outreach but other organisations a step forward in trying to combat the crime amongst the youth of today and shine some light on how to go about this and implement tactics to stop it. 

The best part of the experience was learning about the work of Peer Outreach and the fact that there are people out there who feel passionate about this issue and want to help these young people become the people they were meant to be. It was great to see all the support from people as this helps and gives inspiration to others to get involved.

Prior to attending the Gun, Gangs and Knife Crime talk at City Hall, we were sceptical of what the talk would involve, and also what we would learn and take away from it.

Now that we have been, we feel more educated on the topic and situation as a whole, and thoroughly enjoyed and valued the opinions and views of everyone who attended. We learnt a lot and the representatives from each organisation did have very important, interesting and inspiring things to share.

As young people ourselves living in South London, we have first hand experience of what it is like to see crime everyday and some times even experience crime. It is heartbreaking seeing what should be a close community so divided and alienated. We feel that educating the youth properly is important and the encouragement of positive doings should be implemented more to show that not just negative connotations are associated with them but positive too. We need to stand up, be brave and make a change…now.

Amanda and Natalie

Participation Works