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County Lines Comic Book

by Arts & CultureCounty Lines

County Lines Comic Book: Liberty Lines Project, Sovereign Comics and Youth Unity are delighted to announce that we are launching a comic book on county lines! Our comic book is the first ever comic book designed to educate and empower children who are at risk of grooming and exploitation in the UK’s drug trade.

About Us & Our Project

Liberty Lines Project is a Community Interest Company dedicated to eliminating criminal exploitation in the UK’s illegal drug market. In collaboration with Sovereign Comics and Youth Unity, we are producing a comic book to raise awareness of modern slavery in County Lines drug trafficking. 

County Lines refers to the trafficking of illicit drugs from major cities to smaller towns and rural areas using dedicated mobile phone lines or ‘deal lines’. It often involves the exploitation of children and young adults to move and store the drugs and money. You can read more about it here. 

We chose the comic book form because of its direct and engaging format. The comic will run through the key aspects of County Lines, with a particular focus on the early warning signs of exploitation and ways to get help.

The comic will be distributed in schools and youth-centres, where it will provide an informative, engaging, and fun tool that parents, teachers, youth workers, and peers can use to educate young people about County Lines.

The comic is in its creation stage and we need your help to bring it to life! Our Crowdfunder is now live: https://lnkd.in/dvYGA7z

Our comic is the first of its kind – it is designed to open conversations with children, to empower them to recognise the signs of exploitation and raise concerns if they or their friends are at risk. Our narrative follows relatable characters; children will see they are not alone and that they too can become superheroes of their own stories. It will signpost readers to relevant organisations/helplines that work to support young people and their families.

We are also creating an interactive edition enabling children to explore different narratives where their choices determine the outcome of the story. We will provide copies of the comic to youth and education centres across the UK and use it as a tool to deliver training to children in secondary schools.

Any contribution, large or small will be much appreciated and help us to make this happen!

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Navigating Space Under Lockdown

by Arts & CultureCovid-19Film WorkshopFilmsPartnership working

A research study & film documenting the perspectives and experiences of young, racially minoritised adults from across England.

Given the relative invisibility of young adults in national discussions and policy approaches relating to COVID-19, The Ubele Initiative has partnered with University College London’s Bartlett Development Planning Unit and Youth Unity, to bring you Navigating Space Under Lockdown (NSUL), a collaborative, mixed methods research project, documenting the perspectives and experiences of Black and racially minoritised young adults (aged 18 to 35) in England, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to a gap in current understandings, the project explored how young people’s experiences of home, work, mobility, community and well-being have been affected by the pandemic and by prolonged periods of lockdown.

With the support and guidance of 12 peer researchers, the project reached out to over 200 young adults from across England, through focus group discussions, an online survey, a podcast series and a short film, to capture some of their diverse voices and experiences.

The project is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Please visit: https://nsul.org.uk
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Days Like These – Film Project working with the NHS

by Arts & CultureCovid-19

This project wasrun in partnership with South London & Maudsley Trust, working with a group of young people with high level mental health needs.  The short video and podcast helped to map their voices and journey through the pandemic.

Film of the young people and their journey through covid-19

Podcast of the young people

This podcast captured the voices of the young people throughout the workshops, some of the statements are hard hitting and show how young people are effected by the pandemic.  Lets hope that there will be resources in place when we are through this! 
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Youth Unity Day 2019 – Barking & Dagenham

by Arts & CultureCommunity DevelopmentLondon Borough of Barking & Dagenham

Our first flagship festival which attracted over 1700 people from across London. 

With over 700 young people taking part in a Football Tournament from ages 11 to 18.

On the day West Ham talent scout passed by to see what the day was about and was blown away at how well organisation, which promoted him he call many other premiership clubs who attended, scouting for the next England scorer.

We are proud to say that the festival was well received by the local community with many passers by stating how great it was to see so many young people getting involved in something so positive, along with how refreshing it to see so many smiling happy faces and the community together, proof that more of these community led projects are needed.

We are already in planning for 2020, we hope to see you there!

Jon Gildersleeve a member of the community who volunteered so much of his time, played an integral part in the planning to make Youth Unity a success.  Jon worked tirelessly to help fund raise and bring awareness to our organisation.  We can not thank him enough. 

Born in London, Ben Eine is one of the most successful street artists in the world and is regarded as a pioneer in the exploration of graffiti letter forms.  This Mural was donated to MyPlace in Harold Hill and is now a firm fixture on their wall.  

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A POSITIVE APPROACH TO TACKLING KNIFE CRIME – A PROJECT TO UPLIFT OUR COMMUNITIES AND EMPOWER OUR YOUTH 

Knife crime is a persistent and worrying concern, especially as it impacts particularly upon young people and the disadvantaged.  As of April 27, there have been 27 fatalities from stabbings in London this year.  Two people were fatally stabbed in separate knife attacks in the capital, in the first six hours of 2019.   There are children being injured or killed by other children every day.

Our plan is to develop a pan-London network of organisations that can effectively provide local solutions to the problem and have a real impact on communities.  

Our first pilot event YOUTH UNITY DAY that will attract over 1,500 to 2,000 people from across London and the UK.  We are working to unite communities to tackle violent crime in our boroughs. 

On June 22nd in Central Park, Dagenham we have over 40 different and varied community organisations joining forces to bring a change in violent crime.  These organisations are working harmoniously to bring the community together and bring about change in perceptions that all youth are in gangs and look for trouble. 

This project will raise awareness that young people can collective come together for the greater good of the community and plan for a healthy productive future.  Sports, arts and music unite everyone, and this family fun day is bringing people from all ages and backgrounds.  By educating and empowering we hope this day will inspire individuals to leave gang culture and formalise more positive lives by dropping knives.  

To build stronger relationships, to encourage them to have a sense of pride in their communities.  Starting this with Youth Unity Day other days with follow to formalise change and improve places and open spaces like parks and recreations areas, bringing back our open spaces to families, where they can feel safe and enjoy the environment and not in fear of robbery or violence.  

Free our spaces for the good not the bad.  Youth Unity Day will offer opportunities on how the younger generation can become more involved in their area by becoming volunteers and showing a pride in their community, gaining new skills, offer training to enhance their possibilities to aspire and fulfil their dreams and to live a life worth living.

We have over 52 teams of youth football.  Boxing, MMA, Army, Police Cadets are attending. To make our event all-inclusive we have specially adapted workshops to learn DJ’ing and also music workshops on how to record a track we have included an area for therapy arts and crafts and to include an area of expression.   All participants will be encouraged to engage with organisations attending on the day to take part in something on offer to them. If we can have just 100 young people sign up to get involved with a program it’s a ripple effect of positivity. 

To enable this, we have engaged many local volunteers to ensure we are steering people to the right places focusing on their individual needs, requirements and aspirations.  Havering MIND charity will attend to ensure we are addressing the importance of mental health issues and will offer vital support for those seeking guidance.    

Our project will be engaging with local businesses in and around the area with a view to employment and training opportunities for young people and their parents and families.  The entertainment on the day will involve young talent from across the area to perform music and dance.   We have the Police and the Fire Brigade attending on a recruitment drive along with the Army.

There will be keynote speakers endorsing the day such as the local MPs, Council Leaders and the Mayor Barking & Dagenham who are supporting this event.  Many of the organisations regularly feature on TV and radio and we will be receiving much press coverage on the event.   For the event to run smoothly we have always engaged a security company to ensure safety and the local police have carried out the necessary risk assessments.  

We have funded the event ourselves with some sponsorship from local companies and it is a not-for-profit event as we are not charging entry as we want this to be an event for everyone to attend.  

We are blessed to have the support of many well-known music artists and all are supporting the event voluntarily, most are from the UK House and Garage scene.  We also are featuring emerging young artists as the event is about empowering our youth

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London Unity 2017 was the starting point of Youth Unity 

by Arts & CultureCommunity DevelopmentSports & Fitness

TThis project  was organised within seven weeks with no budget, just a passion for change.  We had the support of circuit DJs who donated their time and energy to support such a great cause and local community sponsoring some parts of the day.

LONDON UNITY FESTIVAL – 2017 – Bringing Communities together through the power of music and dance

Vision – a unified approach to building communities.

Our vision is for London Unity to be a central hub spot for all organisations, families and young people. 

Aim

We aim to develop events that will bring different groups from across the capital together to build cohesive and consistent grass roots approaches to serious youth violence.

We aim to create positive alternatives for young people by embracing the saying, ’it takes a village to raise a child’

We aim to create ways to communicate with each other and the public and ensure that young people know how to access support wherever they are.

To bring organisations from across London together collectively and work as a unit to tackle the problems that are on all our streets!

The website WWW.LONDONUNITYDAY.COM to be a central hub for all organisations with a link to websites and social media.

Background

There are children being injured or killed by other children every day. There are many organisations working on the streets and in the communities that deal with these issues and the underlying causes every day. However, they are often working in isolation. 

Funding for youth services is being cut by local authorities across the board and the services dealing with the aftermath (looked after services, YJS and social services) are stretched to the max. 

By bringing groups together we can share resources and skills and create a collective voice for communities.

We will develop a pan-London network of organisations that can effectively provide solutions to the problem and have a real impact.

Whilst gaining understanding of the causes of these issues we can utilise the experiences and expertise of these groups.

However, we need to change the tone of the conversation and also focus on the positive.

Whilst ensuring that the issues are raised and dealt with strategically we need to provide young people with a platform, parents with support and skills and communities with opportunities.

By working together, we can do this.

Objectives

FUN DAY – This will be a positive event to promote the work of all the groups involved, bring families and communities together and provide opportunities for young people and attract volunteers and new partners.

To network and build mentoring groups under one umbrella to work closely with young people and to work with schools and youth projects.

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