Lets Talk Knife Crime's podcast: Recent Episodes
Chris
Sherifa asks some young people at a youth centre what changes they would like to see.
One of the answers was pretty interesting, and at its heart scrutinises the effect of government cuts to community facilities and the communities themselves
A young person talks about how it can be next to impossible to defend yourself once accused of wrongdoing at school
A young person talks about how it can be next to impossible to defend yourself once accused of wrongdoing at school
A mother gives advice to girls who find themselves in a situation:
"Remove yourself from that situation. Don't get dragged into it; don't get caught up into it."
When you come out of prison how do you stop yourself from going back to your old ways?
JJ gives some advice from his own personal experience
When you have just come out of prison, it's easy to start falling back into the old ways. But you don't want that. Apart from family support, JJ talks about determination to change.
JJ gives some advice to young people, about how there will always be some teacher who is ready to listen to you, and who will give you some good advice when you need it.
Why do you think, a lot of the youth nowadays are getting exploited?
Do you know what? I think it is a lot to do with, first of all like self-esteem, confidence. I'm not blaming parents; not all parents are bad, some parents struggle, you know? I think that the family needs more support.
In a discussion held with some young people at a youth club, Freddy from The Childrens Society comments on how schools' use of exclusion only makes the problem worse:
Audio:
"So with exploitation you can have, like, one of the reasons a child may be sort of misbehaving or acting out, that may be because they're being exploited, and the school don't know that and they just get kicked out. And then when a child is kicked out they're obviously more vulnerable to being exploited because they're not at school; they've got nothing else to do. So that's why we're also working on exclusions because it doesn't work. I think when you strip it back, excluding a child from anything is never going to lead to a good outcome. "
A young person talks with a representative from the Children's Society about how his ADHD wasn't recognised at school for years.
This is a common problem which needs to be identified more quickly. Too many children are slipping through the system undiagnosed.
audio text:
"Yeah I used to be in detention for like fidgeting and stuff, stuff like that. But I couldn't help it because whenever I've got stuff in my hand I'm either doing something naughty in class or just doing, yeah, naughty stuff in school and stuff like that."
"One of the big issues is undiagnosed special educational needs or disabilities. So children are getting excluded and the schools haven't realised that there's actually something bigger going on here.
...like I'm sure like with your experience you might have been told, 'ah, you don't fit in, and you don't really work in the school', and it's you're made to feel that you dont' fit in, but it's actually the system that doesn't fit you."
Sherifa explains how she thinks that schools are often failing students, because they are often too focused on their own reputation
I think for me when it comes to girls, self-love is the most important thing. And as long as you have that self-love and respect for yourself, the right things will come, if that makes sense. You will make the right decision
There's some people who have always got your back, no matter what. Your parents are there for you. If they are then you can talk to them when you are in a tight spot.
The mother of a young person knew he had been stabbed. She called the police and they found him under a bridge, fortunately still alive, but with 6 stab wounds. She recounts the incident.
A young person who has been through the system gives some hard-won advice on how to pursue your dreams.
A young person talks about his experience, and how running with the wrong crowd quickly got out of hand. It was only then that he realised something about his friends.
Doreen Sinclair-Collins talks about how treating people with respect can get young people to respect you back
Rose talks about how that 'PRU' label sticks, and how people will label you as a bad person regardless of the background to your situation.
Rose from the School Exclusion Campaign talks about how once excluded that kids feel like they have been sentenced. This often makes them give up on themselves feeling like, "what's the point?" as society has already labelled them.
Joseph Duncan from Youth Futures talks about how schools are keen to "wash their hands" of a child they see as a problem.
A young person talks about how she has heard of many causes of decisions made about a child's future without the child being consulted in any way.
Doreen from Elevated Minds talks about how parents are the last people to know if a child is facing exclusion.
A young person is asked by a police officer if they would make a complaint if they were mistreated by a police officer. The young people at this workshop felt that the police wouldn't take their complaints seriously, and would try to cover up for their colleagues if wrongdoing emerged to have taken place.
Chris asks young people at Bede Youth Adventure Project what can be done to help stop knife crime.
The children ask for more funding for youth clubs and education to tell people that once you get involved in gangs and knife crime you can never get away from it.
In a Let's Talk session held at Bede Youth Club Chris talked to young people about how they felt talking to their families about knife crime. We discovered that most children felt more comfortable and less judged when talking to a youth worker.
Donya talks about how young people are often stereotyped or labelled and young people often feel judged by society, teachers, etc. She says it is far more positive and better to say, "What are your strengths?" and look at people from that perspective.
Doreen Sinclair from Elevated MInds talks about one of the messages they have for young people they are working with: that with a change of mindset they can achieve much more than they may have previously imagined.
Sharifa talks about how mentoring can help people who suffer from low self-esteem or lack of confidence stemming from where they were brought up, and the change of mindset that needs to occur to remedy this.
Sharifa talks about how although we have a lot of access to all sorts of counselling and other specialist intervention, we are seeing a lot more crisis in our society.
This leads us to think: how is this? why, with all the improvements we have made over the years, is our society contantly on the brink of crisis?
Sharifa talks about how although we have a lot of access to all sorts of counselling and other specialist intervention, we are seeing a lot more crisis in our society.
This leads us to think: how is this? why, with all the improvements we have made over the years, is our society contantly on the brink of crisis?
Chris Haydon talks about the origins of CTVT and the 'Let's Talk' project.
The Let't Talk project began after a spike in Knife crime in London, and an event was organised in March 2018, where people from all sections of the community came to give their views and discuss knife crime and gangs, and what could be done about this.
This event led to the realisation that we needed to hear more from young people. Adults were trying various projects to tackle knife crime yet the problem still persisted.
In the workshops we hosted, where adults listened to young people's viewpoints on knif crime, children expressed gratitude that people would listen to them. They had bottled it up inside themselves and now had an opportunity to express themselves.
In this and subsequent podcasts Chris talks about the 'Let's Talk' project and issues relating to or coming out of the project
The media is focused on negativity, because that sells. But the result is that people and communities get portrayed in a negative light that doesn't reflect the true picture. Doreen Sinclair from Elevated Minds talks about how the black community is consistently presented in a negative light.
Black people are often portrayed in a negative light by media who want them to conform to stereotypes. Gang members, stabbings, drugs and violence. But this is something that most black people are not.
Most black people are innocent, law abiding people who work hard to achieve their dreams.
So why does the media persist in keeping this negative image alive? And what are the consequences for black people and society as a whole?
A young person from Elevated Minds presented a workshop on improving communication between the police and the Black Community. He was really surprised that the police genuinely wanted to make a change and engage with young black people.
A young person from 'Elevated Minds' project talks about her experience training police recruits about how to relate to young people and steps forward to working with young people. She was surprised by the positive reception and the feedback she received.
A young black lady feels there is a lack of black models in the media for young black females to look up to.
A young black lady has never had any dealings with the police but feels intimidated by them because of negative experiences from her friends and family
"I want to say that like, I have so far been discriminated because I’m Muslim, and some other people, I don’t want to name and shame but like call me a terrorist because, because of one person said “Allahu Akbar”, which means, “God is greatest”. It has an impact. It has like, like, it has an impact on the rest of the world. And at that time I don’t feel great. And I just want to say I don’t want it anymore. ‘Cos I think racism makes people feel bad about themselves. And like, when people feel bad about themselves they feel insecure they feel they can’t open up to anybody, and maybe they get depressed and it goes on like a, like a long-term effect on them. And then it can lead to many other problems like mental health or like anxiety and maybe the only way maybe to cut themselves, hurt themselves, like to release I dunno, I don’t know how it is; and also teachers, some teachers, they like to, I have friends and they like to put pressure on them because of their skin colour or they just want to do like just for the fun of it. And I’m just saying I don’t want it anymore. Because if this carries on it will become like a more bigger problem than it is right now."
"Stop and search is a big thing like a lot of black children, it's like everyone on social media and stuff. A lot of black children getting stopped and searched. And I think it's desensitising our like age because like we see it everywhere now, so if it happens we're not going to feel remorse or we're not going to feel a certain way about it we're just going to be like, okay I've seen it, moving on."
In this part of our short series of highlights from our film "3 Visions for Tomorrow" Sharifa Carr talks about using mentoring as a way of bringing people out of difficulty and helping them realise their potential.
Young people at Bede talked about how they felt that people who got involved in knife crime were getting off too lightly.
Some people thought that prison was too cushy and others even suggested bringing back the death penalty.
In this recording a young person expresses his opinions on the subject.
A young person at Bede asks what is the point in complaining to the police when nobody is going to listen to you.
Will the police take you seriously if you are just one young person and there are several other police involved?
What is the procedure for making a complaint?
These are some of the questions addressed at Bede House in 2020
A young person at Bede House Youth Adventure Project comments in a discussion over who you can turn to for support if you witnessed someone being stabbed.
A police officer asked, "if you were in a situation where you felt you needed support; is there anywhere you think you could go to get it?"
The young person responded, "Don’t know. Not because I can’t think of any but in general I think I was to leave here now and see somebody stabbed I don’t know where I would turn to for support because I don’t think there is anywhere for me to turn."
Who can people turn to? The police? A youth worker? Family? The ensuing discussion revealed some surprising answers.
Young person at Bede talks about how police have a negative image because of stop and search, and people don't see the impact of the work they do.
Young lady at Bede House (2020) talking about how the way Stop and Search is being conducted isn't helping community relations between young people and the police.
Donna from Bede House talks about how things were in the '80's when people were judged by how they dressed or how they looked