Category: Campaigns

Press release -Tackling The Issue of Knife Crime Through the Community

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For Immediate Release

June 2019

INAUGURAL SERIOUS ABOUT YOUTH! CONFERENCE LAUNCHES YOUTH SUMMIT AND KEY RESOURCE TO TACKLE YOUTH VIOLENCE

The inaugural Serious About Youth! (S.A.Y!) Conference will be taking place at City Gates Conference Centre, London.

It will bring together over 600 young people, community leaders, policy makers, MPs, teachers, parents, youth workers and knife crime organisations to discuss the national youth violence crisis, share best practice and discuss how we work together to find innovative, ongoing solutions to deal with the issues our communities face.

The aim of the conference is to collaborate with individuals and organisations to establish a comprehensive directory of contacts, programmes and resources that will enable communities to quickly identify and access support when needed. The resource will be distributed to schools and community spaces and it will be accessible online.

An exciting and innovative Youth Career and Advice Summit will also take place during the day. Young people will have the opportunity to meet potential employers and the summit will include insightful workshops, networking opportunities, mentoring programmes and a careers fair involving leading blue chip organisations.

Knife crime is at a critical level, particularly in the capital, and S.A.Y! recognises the fantastic work already taking place in this area up and down the country. We want to galvanise into action our young people, communities, decision makers, employers and all those affected by this widespread epidemic and ask them to join us in July to contribute to this pioneering work.

The S.A.Y! Conference will take place on Saturday 6th July 2019 from 8:30am-5:00pm at the City Gates Conference Centre in Ilford. The conference will see a number of leading speakers take to the stage including Rob Harris from Life Linxs, Richard Akerele from East London Connect, Sheldon Thomas from Gangsline, and Gavin McKenna from Reach Every Generation, with many more still to be announced.

Conference organisers Rob Harris and Gavin McKenna, said: “2019 has seen a large rise in youth violence across the country, particularly in London where knife crime has continued to rise with over 20 fatalities in the year to April. Our goal is simple. This is a national call to action to our communities, key decision makers and anyone directly affected by this violence to collaborate and work with us to come up with impactful strategies and solutions to this problem. This is an important space where we can come together to effect positive change.”

For further information and to arrange interviews, please contact:

Tel: 020 3633 6682 | Email: grounded@citygates.london

Background on organisers:
Rob Harris:
Having worked with young people and their families for over 17 years, Rob came to a point in his career where he desired the freedom to have more of an impact in changing and influencing the lives of the people he was encountering daily.
This led him to start LifeLinxs Ltd. Rob is now directing his company in ways that will have a long-term impact for these same families, without the challenge of having to follow a prescribed process of local authority limitations. His vision is to change lives, one young person at a time and, in turn, see them doing the same for others.

Gavin McKenna:
Gavin McKenna, the pioneer behind Reach Every Generation. Gavin has journeyed from gang membership in London to born again Christian, using his past life experiences to set about influencing societal change. The truth of his life, combined with his development professionally, are what make Gavin a valuable asset to your organisation for educational training on gangs.
Armed with first-hand experience of gang culture, Gavin led an outreach team for a gang initiative in London, led by Sheldon Thomas, which took to the streets to engage with local gang members.

Understanding London’s knife crime epidemic

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sayso
There are currently reduced priced tickets @ ÂŁ5
Healing Relations PR & City Gates Conference Centre

(Press Release) “Tackling The Issue of Knife Crime Through the Community”

NEWS UPDATE:

Image result for metropolitan police

Police arrest 586 people in county lines crackdown 

519 vulnerable adults and 364 children in need of support were helped 500 men and 86 women were arrested in raids in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cheshire, Bedfordshire and other areas.

County line drugs gangs – is linked by a network of mobile phone lines and often coercing children and vulnerable adults – travel out of their usual urban territory and into rural areas to sell drugs. Most come out of London, Birmingham and Merseyside, said NCA County Lines lead Nikki Holland. Tackling the gangs is a “national law enforcement priority”. Children as young as 12 are being put in danger by criminals who are taking advantage of how vulnerable these young people are.

Exclusive: Tackling knife crime with the Met Police https://news.sky.com/video/exclusive-tackling-knife-crime-with-the-met-police-10884781

HRH Prince Harry backs Youth Zones to tackle knife crime crisis:
https://news.sky.com/story/how-police-could-predict-fatal-knife-attacks-11694472

Related image
Teenagers accounted for more than 1,000 admissions to hospital as a result of assaults with a knife or sharp object last year 2018, NHS figures show. Admissions for all injuries caused by an assault with knife or other sharp objects have gone up by almost a third since 2012-13, from 3,849 to 4,986 last year.

Doctors warned that high street sales of knives is helping to fuel the rise in stabbings, and called on retailers to do more to stem the tide of available weapons. Admissions involving youngsters aged between 10 and 19 increased nearly twice as fast, with 656 hospital admissions in 2012-13 up to 1,012 last year – a rise of around 55%. (England.nhs.uk 2019)

EXCLUSIVE INFORMATION

**The presentation below contains strong and explicit language**

INTERVIEW:David Lammy MP “Kids are getting killed where is the Prime Minister and where is the London Mayor Sadiq Khan?”

BoxUpCrime | Help Stop Knife Crime and Rebuild Misguided Dreams! (Stephen Addison)

Violent crime is on the rise, but who is working to keep us safe?

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Policeforce

England and Wales have lost over 45,000 police officers and staff since 2010, a 19% drop in the workforce. Meanwhile, violent crime is on the rise and forces are struggling to respond to demand due to budget cuts, recent reports from the Office for National Statistics and police watchdog HMIC have found.

But what does that mean for your community?
UNISON is the biggest union for police staff. They have investigated the drop within each of the 43 police forces in England and Wales.

The police workforce is made up of policing officers and police staff who work in teams to keep communities safe. Police staff make up 40% of the total police workforce and carry out both operational and supporting roles.  Police staff include police community support officers (PCSOs), and designated officers (like crime scene examiners, investigators, escort and custody officers) who have police powers.

All these categories of police staff, as well as police officers, have suffered big cuts in numbers since 2010.

Go Smoke Free (campaign)

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“Smokers don’t need self-righteous campaigners regulating their behaviour. You’ll always get a few inconsiderate smokers but that’s no reason to punish the overwhelming majority. We’re in danger of creating an incredibly censorious society in which regulations are based not on potential harm to others but on people’s personal preferences.” Smokers’Forest Group

Prostitution and Unison

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(Editor: Jennifer Valentine-Miller)

Law editor, Luke Gittos wrote:Supporting projects with campaigns “In England, the law which currently governs prostitution, resting on the idea that all prostitutes are vulnerable ‘sex workers’ in need of the state’s protection, is entirely harmful, and dangerously misrepresents a complex reality.”

Prostitution itself is not illegal. However, the Sexual Offences Act of 2003 introduced an offence of ‘controlling’ prostitution. In fact, a woman can be ‘controlled’ in prostitution even if she is ‘exercising free will’ when she chooses to prostitute herself.

In short, the offence punishes anyone who exerts any degree of ‘control’ whatsoever over a prostitute, even if that prostitute is choosing with absolute freedom to prostitute themselves. How is it that English law has moved to punish those who exercise even nominal ‘control’ over a person’s activities, without punishing the activity itself?

Sweden criminalised buying sex but decriminalised selling it in year 2000, reducing many brothels and cutting the level of sex trafficking into the country. The public sector’s conference believes that it is time for the UK Government to adopt a similar policy, and recognise that for this to be effective there also needs to be increased investment in drug rehabilitation programmes, education programmes, and other support programmes to provide women with viable alternatives and a route out of the trade.

According to the UK government, 85% of women in brothels now come from outside the UK, however, while men have been convicted for trafficking women into Britain, none has so far been prosecuted for paying for sex with women or girls forced into the sex trade.

The public sector’s union, Unison, wrote that prostitution is a serious social ill, which affects hundreds of thousands of women and children. It is time for men to get the message that women are not for sale, and by criminalising this it will then send out a clear mesage stating that paying for sex is not acceptable.