London,
10
August
2009
|
23:00
Europe/London

Young people lead the way on promoting unity

Young people in Hackney are staging an event promoting a united borough. Organised by the Hackney North East Youth Forum, the One Hackney event celebrates the best that the borough has to offer creatively in dance, music and comedy.

The event, on Friday 14 August at BSix 6th Form College, will also feature workshops on personal safety for young people. The police are running two workshops: a discussion around stop and search, explaining the responsibilities of the police and young people’s rights; and conflict avoidance workshops, adapted for young people from Officer Safety training. The Community Safety Team will be running personal safety workshops and the YOT are running a knife awareness workshop.

Karl Winter, Hackney Partnership Inspector, who plays a key role in implementing Hackney’s strategy to tackle youth violence, Operation Curb, says that the event is unique, as community safety events are more often initiated by the police or community safety officers: ‘It’s fantastic that the initiative originated from young people, To my knowledge this is the first event in the borough which is peer-led and peer-directed.’

Councillor Rita Krishna, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, adds: ‘Active participation by young people when dealing with local issues benefits the community as a whole. The One Hackney event demonstrates that when you empower young people they will find innovative ways to promote services and engage others.’

For more information about One Hackney or to attend the event please call: Cat Garrett, Youth Participation Worker on 07527 385664, or email cat.garrett@hackney.gov.uk