Battersea Youth Voice

The Alliance aim to work with all young people regardless of their background or circumstances. Battersea Youth Voice has been created so that we can identify ways to actively engaged the youth population in Battersea, and overcome any barriers that they may have.

Battersea Youth Voice exist to ensure that young people are not only heard, but are at the forefront of decisions made on their future. Wherever possible we aim to operate using a 'grass roots' approach to our work, as opposed to a top down approach.

Battersea Youth Voice work with predominantly 12-26 year olds in and around the Battersea area to capture the voice, opinions, desires of all groups, but primarily those groups and individuals who are marginalised. Naturally our work extends to the borough of Wandsworth but our primary remit is Battersea.

Battersea Youth Voice is a new project of The Alliance (supported by Big Local SW11 and Winstanley & York Gardens Joint Venture), which aims to:

Work with young people from marginalised groups to identify and begin to address their challenges.
Form youth-led teams to represent the voice and needs of their respective groups.
Work with youth organisations to develop programs to address needs in collaboration with young people.

Support youth empowerment community initatives in and around Battersea

Battersea Youth Voice is a key component of The Alliance and Big Local SW11’s three-year strategy, which aims to tackle Isolation, Loneliness and Mental Health (Depression and Anxiety) in SW11.

Current Projects

PAAYP (Police Accountability & Advocacy for Young People)

There has been a longstanding issue of distrust in Battersea between the Police and specific groups of the community, in particular the black residents. There is statistical evidence that suggests there is disproportionate stop and search of black males, which has been exacerbated by the special unit of Police known as the TSG (Territorial Support Group).

Question. Who does a young person go to when they feel that they have been mis-treated by the Police? Do they feel comfortable going to the Police or even believe that the complaint will be taken seriously?

A vast majority of young people would not make a formal complaint about the Police to the Police. This project aims to;

Address the disproportionate stop, search and arrest of young black males, specifically in the Battersea area.
Capture the experiences of the young people and educate them with proper procedure and advice for if they are stopped again.
Make an alliance with the Police to assist them in training and understanding the world of adolescence,
Escalate serious complaints to the right department in the Police force and if necessary, further escalation to their superiors.
Change the multi-generational attitude of 'them against us' and help to bridge the gap between Police and the community they serve.
Initiate an honest discussion and action points about racism in the Police force.

This project is currently headed up by a young man (20) who has had a variety of experiences with the Police and is passionate about representing the voice of his generation and affecting positive change. This young man has also developed an educational board game called 'Life is what you make it' which utilises real life experiences and current slang to examine the choices that young people are faced with growing up in socially deprived estates. This game is a conduit to a 'teachers pack' of resources to open up an honest discussion about young peoples environments and consequences of actions. This game ties in with this project as it can be used as a preventative measure to discourage engagement in illegal activities that a lot of young people in Battersea are exposed to.

New Gen Podcast

New Gen is a podcast created for the sole purpose of hearing the voice of young people. We pride ourselves in ensuring that they have a voice to share their stories from their perspectives. After all, they are the future!

New Gen voice aims to provide a window into the minds of your young people, hearing their stories, concerns, opinions and suggested solutions on things that affect them in their lives.

You can access various episodes of the podcast via YouTube, or audio via Spotify, Google Podcasts etc. Please click link to access

Like, share, subscribe and let's get the voice of young people out there!

https://linktr.ee/newgenpodcast

If you are aged 13-27 and have an interest in joining in or creating your own podcast, please contact Kebbah@caiushouse.org/07723 115 127.

Below are a few of episodes for you to check out!

Immersive Empathy Training

Immersive Empathy Training provides first person perspective lived experiences, in a virtual reality environment for professionals who work with young people.

This is a unique & revolutionary way to train professionals to raise their awareness levels about young peoples challenges, unconscious bias and prejudice.

The idea was born out of a number of conversations with young people expressing concerns about being 'treated differently' by teachers and police. Through some research, it was uncovered that statistics verify that black boys are disproportionately stopped & searched by the police, and permanently excluded by schools.

The training takes the form of short interactive films in a 360 degree virtual reality environment where the students will see life from the perspective of the young people and will be required to make decisions at specific milestones. The workshops will be facilitated by older young people who have had a similar experience to the subject in the training.

The ultimate goal is to raise the awareness of professionals about potential drivers for young peoples behaviour so that they can be offered the help instead of penalised for certain behaviours or skin colour.

Contact

Kebbah Jalloh (Youth Voice Coordinator for Battersea) Email: kebbah@caiushouse.org/Phone: 07723 115 127