Voices from Inner City Youth

Photos: Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993)
Oscar Wilde's statue behind St Martin-in-the-Fields Church
Tom, Dan Baltzer, Doreen Lawrence, Casey

St Martin-in-the-Fields church overlooks Trafalgar Square in the heart of London and has a mission of inclusion and being out in the community. Its massive £36 million rebuilding project nears completion after 18 months' excavations, pounding, creating and dust, dust, dust. Last night I was excited to walk through the newly completed courtyard, the roof of the new parts of the building two floors below, visit the statue of Oscar Wilde behind the church, then enter the new spaces through a glass entrance in the courtyard. I love the caption on the Oscar Wilde statue: 'We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars'. Last night's Education Programme's event, 'Voices from Inner City Youth' brought us people looking at the stars: Tom and Casey from Kids Company and Doreen Lawrence of the Stephen Lawrence Trust.

We first heard from Dan Baltzer of Kids Company about its family environment to 12,000 of London's children who would otherwise be left to their own devices. Tom, now a staff member, told us how Kids Company 'helped me to slow everything down' when he had got into petty crime, had lost his purpose. Kids Company offers a 'direct line to someone to explain where you are, how you could be, work your own way'. He now works with other young people, realising that 'only a young person can help other young people'. A somewhat shy young black man in his early 20s, trendily dressed, he soon warmed up as his enthusiasm for Kids Company shone through, his vision of the stars brightening the more he spoke. 'Every generation puts something into the pot. I'm coming to talk to lots of meetings'. His ended with these words: 'We have a flame inside us, unless we control it, we burn everything around us.' We felt his wonderful steady warmth, applauded him warmly in return, then were introduced to Casey, the next star gazer.

Dressed in jeans, a beige coat and topped with a striped knitted hat, 18 year old Casey stepped up to bat. I saw Casey as someone who was going to keep her eye on the ball and hit a home run. She started, 'I'm a bit shy this minute although I'm not a shy person.' Then she told her story. 'I was an 11 year old runaway. I'm not blaming my mother. She had her illness. I turned to people on the streets because they became my family.' She heard about Camilla, founder of Kids Company, and thought to herself, 'I've got to meet this woman in a turban, no way!' Camilla sat her down, talked to her, kept calling Casey when she didn't turn up. When she did, she'd go to the club, abusing staff, refusing to listen. Camilla had support workers calling Casey every day.

I had tantrums, pushed people away because I wasn't used to people looking after me. Camilla supported me the whole way. I can tell you now that crime does not pay, it's gonna come back on you. I came out of prison, [three times] I can't explain it, Camilla was more than my family. If I wasn't in Kids Company for seven years, I'd be in prison or dead. You have to meet Camilla, she's taken on what society has refused to do. At 11 I was on the street. She never blamed me. They want to keep pushing everyone to their potential. It made me know there's people out there who care for you.

I fell in love with Casey, this hard hitting young woman, already through thousands of lives in her 18 years, coming back with love. 'I don't blame adults. Kids come in to us wearing clothes too small, not being fed.' She was one of those kids, had come through the other side, looking at the stars, ready to start college in January to get skills so she could be an entrepreneur. We burned our hands with applause, Casey took her seat and we were introduced to Doreen Lawrence.

Her son Stephen Lawrence was killed in 1993, a quiet studious young man, who asked his mother when she had cautioned him about being on the streets, 'I'm not doing anything, why should this happen to me?' The most terrible did happen to Stephen, his life cut short before realising his dream of being an architect. His mother has led the campaign to get justice for her son's death, tirelessly campaigning to change attitudes, combat racism in the police. She has talked to young people who say they don't expect to live beyond the age of 25. 'Things have improved in the last ten years with the 2003 enquiry for 'Stop and Search' resulting in the monitoring of written records. The Race Relations Act has brought police into the act. There's now double jeopardy' and added quietly that it hasn't helped in the case against Stephen's murderers, still walking the streets today.

Doreen Lawrence will not rest in her campaign against racism and violence while creating a legacy of excellence for young people in her son's name. Her recipes include changing the mindsets of young people through education, making known positive role models other than pop and football stars, sensitising the media about the negative portrayal of blacks. 'What's this about headlines, 'Black on Black crime'? A crime is a crime. Stop that'.

She urged more reporting of 'good news' that doesn't get out there enough: Achievement Awards for black children hosted by Diane Abbot at the House of Commons recently, the 'Power List' of 100 black people of influence, the Reed Report on positive role models for young black men that includes lawyers, doctors. 'Why isn't this more known about?'

Doreen has used Stephen's death to help others through the Stephen Lawrence charitable trust, educating 70 architects from the black community in the last ten years. There's the Stephen Lawrence Prize for an outstanding building, part of the Royal Institute of British Architects' Sterling Prize, and she encouraged us to visit the bridge at Kew Gardens, sculpture and function combined to open up a new area there, bearing a plaque with the prize in Stephen's name.
She spoke proudly about the Stephen Lawrence Centre, taking eight years to reach fruition, it encourages people to look at their environment through community learning and social research. I quote Doreen's vision of the Stephen Lawrence Centre from its brochure:

The name Stephen Lawrence means different things to different people. Personally, I hope the Stephen Lawrence Centre will become a magnet for aspiring young people who want to break the cycle of negative stereotyping, giving them the vision to shape their own futures by setting themselves clear goals, gaining new skills and staying positive and determined.

Doreen joined the panel of Tom and Casey to answer our questions, the first about knife crime. Casey said the main problem is that angry young people get 'hyped up by the media, making it bigger'. Then young people start carrying knives, 'protecting themselves'. Tom added, 'Because of the way the media is promoting the issues, young people are creating gangs. The young people are ignorant. They need to be prevented from carrying weapons.' Casey added: 'the community needs to be searching for different ways of dealing with problems, learning how to address anger.' Doreen repeated her recipe: 'The media needs a balance, showing young people what they can do'. When Doreen asked how this knife and gun culture started in the last ten years, Casey responded from her experience of being on the streets, an angry kid: 'Kids need a support structure. They are not evil, no one's born a certain way.'

When asked about the police, Casey came up with some hopeful words: 'The police all around London are addressing issues. The crime rate is going down where Kids Company operates. There were mixed views about churches offering something: Casey said they have the time, space and people to offer help. Tom was less enthusiastic: 'I grew up in a church, then grew away. The church is stuck behind walls. Church is important, faith more so. Church needs to take a stand because young people, we don't see church.'

We had a summing up from Maire MacCormack from Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, giving us grim statistics: 71% of media reports are negative, especially on young black boys; 3.1 million children are living in poverty in the UK, the UK bottom of the table on UNICEF's ranking of 21 industrialised countries on the well being of their children. We were reeling from the numbers until Maire ended on a hopeful note and brought us back to Tom, Casey and Doreen, members of the black community taking action to change the world. Casey's refrain, 'You've got to meet Camilla' ringing in my ears, I realised I had already met her in Casey, the 18 year old young woman speaking of love after seven years at Kids Company, the best 'word of mouth' in the world. When Doreen handed me the Stephen Lawrence Trust brochure I felt her courage to make the world a better place in the eyes of her son in his blue and white striped shirt. Remembering my visit to Oscar Wilde's statue behind St Martin's before the talk, I felt I was in the company of people looking at the stars--Tom, Doreen and Casey--and who were pointing to other stars, Stephen and Camilla.



Resources

• Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust: www.stephenlawrence.org.uk
  
• Kids Company: www.kidsco.org.uk
• St-Martin-in-the-Field: www.smitf.org

Remaining events in the Autumn Education series

• Tuesday 28 October, 7 pm, Church: Voice from South Africa, Tongues of Fire Youth Theatre
• Tuesday 4 November, 7 pm, Church: Voice for Creation, Brother Samuel
• Tuesday 11 November, 7 pm, St Martin's Hall: Voices of those Seeking Asylum, Helen Bamber and Juliet Stevenson