WHILE TOWER HAMLETS Council runs down what used to be a flagship youth service, a new social enterprise has stepped in to offer a quality service to meet local need.
The Council seems to have invented a new system – based on treating young people like a flexible commodity that will turn up where and when it’s convenient for the Council and engage in what the Council has decided to offer. That strategy may work for supermarkets stacking baked bean tins, but it doesn’t make for a relevant and engaging youth service.
The Council system of expecting young people to travel over to a distant hub where the designated services are on offer has left large parts of the borough without a reasonably accessible youth service – just when the need is very high. Finding a job was difficult enough before lockdown: given what lockdown has done to the economy, it’s now even harder. Staying away from the drugs culture and its fast track into petty crime (or worse) is harder than ever too.
One part of the borough which was missing out was the Isle of Dogs, where the social enterprise The Utilize Project is based. The Project has now stepped in to fill the gap. It has brought in Spotlight, a youth centre which works with Poplar Harca, to run services for young people from The Project’s base in Pepper Street, in the middle of the Isle of Dogs. The emphasis will be on reaching out to young people to identify what is needed – and then delivering it, using space at The Utilize Project.
Services may concentrate on helping young people find, and prepare themselves for, employment. Mentoring and courses could be offered – as well as signposting to other providers. It doesn’t have to be fancy, though. Just providing hang out space can help keep young people out of trouble and help them become more positive and pro-active about making a future for themselves.
Shahaveer Hussain, Co-Founder of The Utilize Project, said: “Too often, empty spaces are either neglected and left to generate problems or developed in a way that doesn’t serve the best interests of the communities they are part of. We aim to ensure that people who have plans to lift up the communities around them are able to access the space in which to do so.”
The summer is already feeling tense on the Island. Residents claim they have never heard to many police sirens – evening in, evening out – and there’s already been a murder near Crossharbour station, which is at one end of Pepper Street. It’s very welcome that someone has stepped in to work with local young people. It’s just a shame that the Council couldn’t manage to take this simple idea and make it happen. Still, maybe in the future the Council will be able to get some good resale prices for nearly-new table tennis tables.
●Watch more about this story: Watch Jenny Fisher from East London News talk to Gemma Simmons and Mahmud Shahnawaz of The Utilize Project about their plans for the Isle of Dogs centre: 20:20 vision – The Space Race
●Read more about it: Splash Lifeskills Youth feed the elderly Barking & Dagenham Youth get ready for the Zone