If any of us knew the answer to diverting young people away from crime and anti-social behaviour you probably wouldn't be reading my post, or quite possibly, you'd be working in a completely different field. As long as the media continues to rage with headlines about 'out of control hoodies' the debate will continue and the pressure to find answers will grow. The truth is that there's no one perfect answer, no Eureka moment just around the corner. All we can do is keep exploring the possibilities but as I've seen with my own eyes, there is real merit in small, homegrown projects that work on a very local level.
As a writer and graphic designer we were looking for a creative project that would really inspire us and test us, something different and much more down to earth than some of the work we find ourselves doing. There's so much hot air and empty rhetoric out there these days we just wanted to do something a little more honest and something we could believe in. Living in Nottingham's Hyson Green we could see with our own eyes that lots of young people simply get labelled before they open their mouths, simply by virtue of living in the 'wrong' neighbourhood.
So we had the idea of creating a young people's magazine, something that they could put together themselves, giving them an outlet and a platform for their thoughts, opinions and creative talent. We took the idea to the Nottingham Youth Inclusion Project, who had tried to do something similar before, but as they admitted, they didn't have the experience or know-how to create a real magazine, only a fanzine, which didn't really do the young people's work justice.
Involving around 25 young people, ranging in age from 9 to 16, and 12 weeks of after school sessions, the result of our idea was Rollin' Forever, a professionally produced and printed magazine that was distributed around Nottingham through record stores, independent clothing and skateboard shops, cafes and schools. All the content for Rollin' Forever came from the young people, including original artwork, photography, lyrics, interviews and debates about things like music influencing violence, school and gun crime.
Since Rollin Forever, we've worked with other groups of young people on two more magazines and what we've found with all three projects is that the young people have got loads to say, a great deal of it very worthy of being heard, they just need an outlet and people to listen to them.
The project also worked in a diversionary sense, giving the young people somewhere to come and something to do, away from the temptations of the street. It wasn't just the process of creating the magazine that seemed to inspire them either, in many ways the most important part was the fact that the finished magazine was professionally produced, the final result literally blew them away and they all just sat and looked and looked at the work they'd produced. I think giving them the message that they COULD produce a real magazine and that their work was worthy of being in a real magazine helped to awaken a belief in them that they were capable of so much more and that people were bothered about what they had to say.
I helped one of the young people involved in the project to write an article for YJ magazine about the project and his words sum it all up really - take a look at page 15. http://www.yjb.gov.uk/Publications/Resources/Downloads/YJ%20-%20Issue%20009%20October%20November%202007.pdf. Maybe it's a drop in the ocean, but from my experience, these kinds of projects can and do make a difference. If you'd like to know more about Rollin Forever please feel free to get in touch with us by emailing stephanie@13souls.com