BIG £1.7m for projects providing safety and stability to London communities

Area:

London

Programme:

Reaching Communities

Release date:

13 3 2012

The expansion of a Hackney youth club which stayed open during the summer riots and successfully persuaded its young members to step away from the trouble has been awarded almost £440,000 from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG).

Gascoyne and Morningside Youth Club (GMYC) was described as a “home” by one former gang member who changed his ways with help from the centre, and now delivers gang prevention workshops there for children and young people aged 8-19.

Project leaders now hope to extend the vital youth provision - which currently has a waiting list - across five evenings a week and during holidays, as well as expand the support and prospects available for disadvantaged young people in Hackney. Workshops and one-to-one advice sessions will tackle issues including sexual bullying and STIs, while video diaries will record experiences of gang and violence issues. GMYC will also address drug awareness, careers advice, confidence building, budgeting, volunteering opportunities, fitness, healthy eating and cross-cultural cooking.

Almost half of the 18 and 19-year-olds at GMYC are now applying to university or apprenticeship schemes. Nicolette Nixon, chair of the management committee, said one of the greatest challenges the project faces is keeping young people in education.

She said: “It’s high density living and there are always going to be the wrong kind of role models around. You have drug dealers, you have people who aren’t in education or in work but who seem to have lots of money. Who do you want to be like? That’s one of the pressures we face, to keep them in education. A lot of young people are trying to get Saturday jobs but there is nothing out there for them. They see their peers out with money and they didn’t go to uni. Our job is to say that this is not the route to follow - in four or five years time they will still be on the streets, you will be at uni and you will have a life.”

Children growing up in parts of Hackney may be persuaded by teenagers or adults to safeguard or deliver money or drugs because they are below the age of criminal responsibility, as was publicised by the troubled plight of Mason in the recent BBC drama Prisoner’s Wives.

Miss Nixon said: “It’s really hard on the smaller ones. What these people do, they have a tendency to let the little ones hold the drugs as they are below the age of criminal responsibility.”

In addition to hosting a regular junior advisory panel, in which young people meet the police on a quarterly basis to discuss community priorities, GMYC hosts open forums about gangs.

Miss Nixon said: “Their parents are working long hours; they are left until the parents come home or they come to us. During the riots we stayed open throughout and my colleagues and I went out to see if any of our young people were involved. We went out and got them back. All we said was, come with us, you don’t need to do this.”

Miss Nixon, who grew up on the Morningside estate, added: “Young people have consistency which they didn’t have before. They know that on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays they have somewhere to go. We also don’t have a high staff turnover, they know the adult who can relate to them, support them and basically be there for them. Everyone thinks this part of Hackney is a really awful place and not safe to walk around but we have a real sense of community on that estate and I think that stems from the youth club.”

An 18-year-old former gang member, who wishes to remain anonymous, was persuaded to change his ways when he was offered the opportunity to volunteer at GWYC. He has since mentored young people about gangs and other issues for five years and is studying music technology at college.

He said: “It’s either an individual who has a problem or someone else - some bring different gang members or friends to the area and a fight will break out. You’re fighting for your postcodes, it’s pointless – your postcode will still be there after you die.

“Nicolette helped me change my ways and I started helping youths out and thought that’s better than being in a gang. Some people even come to the club from areas outside our community, which means a lot. I think of the youth club as a home, I have been brought up at that youth club.”

Also receiving funding today, Cardboard Citizens will use a grant of £296,166 to reach out to homeless people through theatre. The charity, which will expand the performing arts project across London, aims to move people away from homelessness. Beneficiaries in hostels and day centres are encouraged to become actors and tour the play across over 40 hostels. Alongside peer-led activities, one-to-one sessions will offer advice regarding education, training and employment. To date the project has enabled 385 homeless people to attend theatre workshops, and through so doing, 120 gained a QCF accredited Level 2 qualification, often the first qualification they had achieved.

Programme Director Kathrine Quiller-Croasdell said: “Our general aim of this grant is to formalise our peer mentoring opportunities that we have made available to our members as we see this as a key way to progress away from homelessness. The focus on employability is really challenging for people who have no qualifications or little experience in the workplace. They tend to require all these skills that a lot of people take for granted. A lot of the communication skills that might have been lost and how to work with and support other members of a team, and peer mentoring is a way to increase all these skills.”

Watch an audio slideshow about the project

In November 2010, Helen Donoghue, 32, had hit “rock bottom”, after the end of a relationship left her homeless and battling alcoholism. But thanks to Cardboard Citizens, with whom she performed more than 50 drama tours, she had the confidence to give up alcohol, live independently and aspire to new career opportunities. She is now working for Crisis and will soon begin studying counselling and psychology at college.

She said: “Cardboard Citizens came to my hostel in 2010. Personally for me, it worked. It kept me in a safe environment and able to express myself. Coming off the alcohol, I was already at rock bottom, so I had an extended family there. We each had that link which was homelessness, it was great to be around like-minded people.

The Monitoring Group (TMG), which has received £299,977, aims to help victims of racial and religious harassment in 16 London boroughs to deal with the effects oftrauma. It will provide counselling sessions through local support groups so that victims can share experiences, and an advocacy service for representation in court proceedings and tribunals.

Suresh Grover, Director of The Monitoring Group, said: "The grant will allow us to provide a much needed and valuable service to victims of race hate crimes in London. We can now support and advocate on behalf of victims properly and witness an improvement inthe quality of their lives, as importantly it will also allow us to work with the relevant authorities to take effective and significant steps to prevent the problem.”

Today’s funding for all the projects comes from BIG’s Reaching Communities programme, which provides National Lottery good cause grants from £10,000 to £500,000 to help those most in need and build stronger communities.

Alison Rowe, Big Lottery Fund’s Head of the London region, said: “One of the main outcomes we aim to achieve from the Reaching Communities programme is strong communities, with people working together to tackle their problems. I am pleased these projects demonstrate this so clearly, empowering disadvantaged communities and giving them a vital sense of belonging.”

A full list of London projects recieving funding today:

Further Information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Ask BIG a question here: https://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigLotteryFund #BIGlf
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund

Notes to Editors

• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 46% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since June 2004 BIG has awarded over £4.4bn.
• The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £27 billion has now been raised and more than 370,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

Tags