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Youth Work: Black boys mentored

6 mins read Youth Work
Can an innovative mentoring scheme that offers a "tough-love" approach prevent London's black young men from becoming involved in crime? Tom de Castella went to find out.

The minibus travels around the London borough of Newham collecting black boys after school. The atmosphere on board as it weaves its way through the clogged East End streets is upbeat but by no means riotous.

At the merest sign of bad behaviour, the driver Ian Joseph administers what can only be described as a bollocking. When it arrives at Eastside Young Leaders Academy's youth centre there is more of the tough-love approach on show.

Eastside Young Leaders Academy was made famous by Ray Lewis, its charismatic founder and chief executive. Lewis's work at the academy caught the eye of the Centre for Social Justice founder and now Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and, in 2008, Lewis was chosen by London Mayor Boris Johnson to be his Deputy Mayor for Young People. But only two months into the job, Lewis was forced to resign over a series of allegations of financial impropriety dating back to his time as a vicar.

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