Barking and Dagenham Council targets parents in new knife crime campaign
Fiona Simpson
Thursday, August 13, 2020
A London council has launched a stark new campaign calling on parents to find out their children’s whereabouts in a bid to tackle a surge in violent youth crime.
Barking and Dagenham Council’s Lost Hours campaign sees Peter Chesney, whose daughter Jodie, 17, who was stabbed to death in a park in east London last year describe his heartbreaking experience.
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In a seven-minute long video accompanying adverts on public transport and in train stations, Beatrice Mushiya also talks about the murder of her son Duran Kajiama who was stabbed to death outside a fast food restaurant in 2016.
The campaign highlights an increase in youth violence across Barking and Dagenham over the last decade.
Council figures show that in the last two years, 67 knife attacks on young people have been recorded as well as 1,794 robberies of personal property by a young person.
Data from the council’s Crime and Disorder Strategic Assessment shows that in the borough, that most youth violence between the hours of 3pm and 9pm, when young people finish school and parents get home from work.
The council and supporters of the campaign are calling on parents to “check in on their children regularly”.
Speaking as part of the campaign video, Stephen Addison, the founder of Box Up Crime, a youth organisation which supports young people at risk of becoming involved in violent crime through boxing, encourages parents to “ask questions”.
Highlighting the grooming of vulnerable young people by drugs gangs, Addison says: “Take time out with your children. Ask them questions - who is your friend? Where did you get the new trainers from? Why have you got that phone?”
“Ask these relevant questions that will keep your son or daughter free and alive,” he adds.
Councillor Maureen Worby, cabinet member for social care and health integration, said: “There is no hiding away from the fact that youth violence is getting worse, not just in Barking and Dagenham but across the whole of London.
“Every young person has a parent or a guardian who is responsible for them and we are asking you to work with us now to stop this continuous issue of youth violence.”
The launch of the campaign comes just a week after Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called on the government to reverse funding cuts to youth organisations to support the city’s “vital” youth clubs.
According to research by London Youth, nearly a third of the capital’s youth clubs say they face closure within six months following the impact of Covid-19.
Nearly half (47 per cent) of those surveyed by London Youth had to furlough staff and 78 per cent are regularly working with fewer young people than they were before lockdown.
Recent research by YMCA England and Wales shows that youth services have faced real-terms funding cuts of £1bn over the last decade.
Khan has raised concerns that the closure of youth clubs could put more young people at risk of becoming involved in violent crime as well as increasing the risk of poor mental health and low educational attainment.
However, the mayor is calling for the government to invest in youth work to help young people recover from the impact of the pandemic and reduce violent crime across the capital.
He said: “During the last decade of government austerity, ministers slashed police and youth services - causing violent crime to rise in London and across the UK.
“Now we are in danger of going back to square one under a new era of austerity, as the government refuses to compensate Londoners for the cost of Covid-19. Unless they urgently give us the funding we need, they risk undoing all of the hard work we have been doing in London to support young people. Now is the time to invest in our youth services, our communities and our police - not more cuts.”
