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Listen Up members, from left: Mateus Lutumba, Sami Adam, Michael Potten, Kamal Akerbousse, Gouled Mohamed and Mohamed Abubakar Ali |
Youth must find its voice if we are to make streets safe
What are the roots of knife crime? Students Sami Adam and Mohamed Abubakar Ali believe school expulsions, relationships with police, lack of money and negative stereotypes of young people all play a part
DUE to the fact that, in the last year alone, Islington has seen the devastating effects of violence on young people, a group of us have set up a campaign to encourage and empower our peers to end the bloodshed on our streets.
We all have grown up within Islington, attended local schools and colleges and have been moved to act as we have seen severe changes to our surroundings; things are getting out of control across London and as a unit we could change this.
As a first step we decided to put on an event called “Our Time” at the Emirates Stadium, organised by young people for young people because we felt one way of tackling youth violence is by finding out the reasons and possible solutions from the youth themselves. We are too often not given the chance to tell it like it is.
On June 9 more than 250 youths came to the event to discuss why they think there is a problem with some young people killing others and why some young people feel the need to carry weapons. Young people from youth clubs and schools and many young people who do not go to any project and don’t get a chance to talk about these issues were invited to come.
All those involved thought about what needs to be done to combat the growing problems facing the younger generation, and how we could resolve them as a team.
The night brought up some key things which young people think have increased the potential for violence.
Being kicked out of school raises the chances of young people being both a victim and perpetrator of crime. Very few people who get kicked out of school ever go back into education, and those who do are likely to become known to police. More needs to be done to keep us in school through a curriculum we can relate to and teachers who engage us better.
One of the main sources of youth, gang and drug-related crime begins with a lack of money and a need for money among young people. Living in poverty-driven neighbourhoods and with relative deprivation so evident across Islington – with multi-million pound complexes next to council estates – young people are raised surrounded by things they want but can’t have, or do not have the opportunity to have.
Opportunities are a vital part of putting a stop to violence, giving chances to young people stops them doing illegal activities. More courses, jobs and apprenticeships need to be created to give us credible alternatives.
Another key issue is the relationship between young people and police, how stop-and-search is done and how young people’s views are listened to and acted on by politicians. These are not short-term problems that can be tackled overnight, so we need to think longer term.
Our event broke down the stereotypes surrounding young people, as we as youths feel isolated from many parts of the community for the way we dress and communicate; this further causes a negative atmosphere between adolescents and people of authority. But this is only the start. We and other young people need to be encouraged to voice our issues and stand up against the violence.
Will this be the event that slowly starts to make young people realise what they are doing to each other is wrong and put a stop to all the gun and knife crime? Maybe, but we need support from politicians, police and our communities to make it happen. This should be a step not only for Islington but also for the whole of London.
We have already taken our findings to the council and have been asked to come back later in the year to assess how it is tackling the issues – we will do this. We aim to continue to organise more events to a better calibre.
We have been invited to a school to voice our opinions and encourage the future generation to put a halt to violent crime. We have organised a Young Muslim Voices (a sector of Listen Up) conference in September as all aspects of society are affected and we need to acknowledge this. We now want to bring more young people together to build the strength of the campaign and a youth culture that rejects violence.
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