London riots

A new interactive guide for young people facing conflict situations launches this month. “Listen Up Listen Hard” explores how young people can handle common challenges in their streets, homes and schools, based on the training given by award-winning East London youth project Truce 20/20. Written by young people in the Truce project, the free guide reflects their own range of experiences and choices when confronted by conflict, and invites viewers to consider their own best options. Hide

I’m very sad and frustrated. Shocked? Unfortunately not. Like most of you, I have been watching in disbelief how quickly the riots spread across London on Monday night, and how careless the young people became about the neighbourhoods and the communities where they live. The already negative stereotype of young people lived up to its expectations: after all, “they’re all criminals,” right?

In recent years, I have been privileged to work with young people in the Truce 20/20 youth project in Newham, one of the most deprived and diverse areas of London. In the course of this, the personal journeys I have witnessed in young people’s lives, despite their heart-breaking backgrounds, have left me speechless and humbled over and over again. When we tapped into their personal potential, which was screaming to get out, the result has been a movement of committed and determined young people, able to pass on their new skills and inspire over 2,500 other young people in the past two years alone.

And not all young people were rioting. Those with whom I’ve worked over the past few years have stood up to peer pressure and ridiculed the actions of the troublemakers. While other young people were mobilising their friends to join them on the streets, the Truce young people were voicing their frustrations and motivating their friends to stay at home. Positive messages about rebuilding stronger communities, about the need to act as positive role models, and that violence is intolerable, kept popping up on the Facebook updates of the Truce graduates.

There were many who were able to clearly articulate their grievances about the powers of authorities, the lack of facilities for young people, the low prospects for employment and the problem of tuition fees. But whilst these grievances may be real and complex, the young people knew very well that violence is not going to resolve underlying issues.

Drawing from feedback from our young people over the years, the message is clear – there has been a lack of positive role models, or people who they can look up to. This was demonstrated in the inability of some parents to get their rebellious offspring home. The recent wave of closures of youth centres and of initiatives that provide young people with meaningful opportunities, as a result of recent drastic cuts in youth provision, didn’t help either.

I’m not excusing the greed-driven behaviour that takes to the streets and helps itself to the latest designer and electronic goods. But in my opinion, this is a manifestation of broader structural inequalities. The challenge for the policymakers, in the short term, is to bring security back to the streets of London and other cities – while ensuring that the long term causal drivers of this violence are understood and addressed.

I have been at the frontline of working with hard-to-reach young people, and witnessed real positive differences in behaviour of individuals after taking part in our programme. This has left me with nothing but conviction that youth initiatives which equip young people with skills that help to divert from anti-social patterns of behaviour and make positive choices about the direction of their lives, are one of the answers to the current challenges we face in our UK communities.

Positive messages and invitations to clean up the streets of Newham have been bouncing amongst the Truce graduates through Facebook since Tuesday. Their first brainstorming session, on how to ‘do our bit’ in the community, has already taken place. Watch this space: the riots will go, but the Truce young people are here to stay.

Klaudia Brezna
Truce 20/20 Project Manager Hide

It is a hard time for young people however you cut it: unemployment, rising costs in post secondary school education, and cuts to spending on services targeting the needs of young people. And now we have the easy tendency to malign youth in the wake of the recent rioting here in Newham and across London.

We believe in young people and have heard some of their sensible voices, now and then, in the interviews on news services. We are reminded that the majority of young people are not rampaging in the streets. Also we have seen enough of their positive energy being channelled through volunteering in schools and the wider community, through agencies like ours, to have faith in them.

Someone commented on the riots, saying “It was mindless criminality, full stop!” There has been opportunist violence and criminality on the streets, which we all agree is unacceptable: but it would be far too simplistic to sum up the recent situation in those terms. The drivers are much more complex than simple ‘thuggery’, opportunist vandalism and looting.

More than effective police action and being tough on those who are arrested for their actions, we need to look at the underlying dynamics, which over decades have contributed to deprivation in our urban areas, made viable employment an alien experience, eroded the values of respect and neighbourliness, and nurtured a culture of despair for many.

At Conflict and Change and Peace Direct, we believe in the potential of young people, adults and communities to rise and be far more than they are currently. For this to happen they need the support, understanding and compassion of others and, above all, a refusal to leap to hasty and simplistic conclusions, which take us no further toward effective strategies that address the real issues.

For information about some young people with lots of positive energy to offer, check out our Truce 20/20 project, delivered in partnership between Conflict and Change and Peace Direct.

Chris McDermott, Conflict and Change. Hide