United_Digital1_8:Activist issue 7 12/06/2009 13:25 Page 23
united digital youth workers
23
Gang wars, knife crime – Unite’s youth workers are on the front line fighting
apathy, hopelessness and inequality of opportunity
In August 2006 at 7.30 pm, Brixton nursery We target hotspots and crews (gangs) as a through a week’s trial, £3m for a murder trial.
teacher Su Opie was on the phone when whole and so they can support each other It’s cheaper to send kids to Eton, put them in
suddenly her partner Sam burst in shouting though change.” a hotel, give them a one-to-one tutor and fly
that their son Jonny had been stabbed and them around in helicopters. I can work with
was in hospital. Dennis Gyamfi has been through X-It. 22 kids for a year for £80,000 and I will get
Originally from Ghana, at 10 he found himself way better re-offending rates.”
Five hours later Su and Sam learned the in Brixton’s Somerleyton estate with his
terrible truth from doctors and Jonny’s mother and three younger siblings. With his Unite has a role too. According to University
friends at the scene of the fracas. Jonny had mother working all hours and him stuck in of Glamorgan youth policy specialist, Unite
died almost instantly with one fatal stab the flat looking after three young children, member Professor Howard Williamson,
wound to the heart in a row over money. Dennis soon began to feel bored and unions should do more to ensure the
isolated. legitimate economy is more accessible and
At the time Su said, “I do not feel I will ever worthwhile to young people.
be happy again.” Nearly three years on little By the time he reached his early teens, he
has changed for her, Jonny is just another started getting into scrapes with local kids “The option of being a supermarket shelf
grim statistic in the seemingly endless wave of and hustling on the streets to earn a few stacker is not always on the radar when you
gang-related crime. pounds. have been what some consider to be a
bigshot wheeler dealer,” believes Howard.
Who has the answers? Unite member, youth He says ‘gang’ is so overused and emotive to
worker Julia Wolton believes a non- be almost meaningless. “To me we were a Currently, it is legal to pay a 17 year old over
judgemental approach is key. family. We had people who were looking after £2 less per hour less than an adult doing the
us and when someone was in trouble we same job. So an anti-discriminatory ‘same
Julia says, “This lets us build a successful would support each other,” Dennis says. work same pay’ campaign could considerably
relationship with them – if you can do that boost the credibility of unions among young
you can challenge them. They trust our Dennis does not to go into detail as to what people.
motivation, sense we care, we we value their happened during his time with the ‘MZ
voices. Most adults don’t and they can smell Crew’. But for many gangs in places like Unite national secretary Doug Nicholls cites
that instantly. They say I smell right.” Brixton, small-time drug dealing is one of the damning evidence of the strong links between
main sources of income. inequality and youth crime. “I’ve asked dozens
Julia has designed an award winning scheme of our youth workers, working with street
for employer Lambeth council called X-it, According to Julia, it is the volatile gangs and the most vulnerable and
which then home secretary Jacqui Smith combination of ‘crew’ turf wars, disputes over disadvantaged young people in Britain, what
called a ‘vital’ alternative for young people. income sources, a perceived need for self- causes irrational and sickening killings?
defence and high testosterone levels that
X-It focuses on young people on the fringes cause relatively minor clashes to blow out of “They say it is the hopeless place into which
of gangs, both those at risk of joining or gang proportion and end up in the news as the system has tipped its poorest without
members who want to leave but don’t have another ‘gang-related’ death. redemption. The hopelessly inadequate and
the confidence to make the break. The uneven distribution of resources and wealth.
scheme is effective. Its 72 per cent non- Different route Inequality is the killer,” Doug adds.
reoffending rate among the young people Luckily, Dennis chose a different route. “There
taking part stands in stark contrast to the 75 was this guy Soloman. He was 19 and was Unite is calling for 4,000 more professionally-
per cent of young people who go back to respected. He talked about X-It. The trained youth workers, a quadrupling of the
crime after being locked up. programme was great because it opened my youth centre building budget and giving the
eyes really fast. We did this empowerment work vote to 16-17 year olds.
“I take kids where they are at and try to climbing mountains holding on to the rope of
progress them to what they want to be,” Julia your enemy, (a member of another gang) and Julia agrees and believes unions cannot afford
explains. “I employ people who come through your enemy holding on to your rope.” not to fight harder for youth. “Young people
the programme to work alongside me and aren’t likely to join unions and yet unions
that way they become role models for other Soloman was one of Julia’s youth leaders, need young people. They don’t see the
young people. It also means they recruit the signed up from a previous project. He was connection between horrendous employment
young people for me and can do that because the vital link that gave Julia access to Dennis conditions and what unions can do to change
they have credibility. to show him that he could realise his true that. We need to do more.”
ambition – becoming a photographer and film
“It’s voluntary which is very important. Most director.
programmes work on the basis of court For more info
orders but X-It requires young people to X-It is working for those outside the gang www.x-itonline.co.uk
want to make the change. hardcore. “People say it’s expensive. But the www.unitetheunion.com/cywu
punitive approach costs a fortune and it A Mother’s Tear co-directed by Dennis Gyamfi
“Lastly, we work with groups not individuals. doesn’t work. It costs £100,000 to put a kid can viewed at www.youtube.com
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39