Listen up

Bouncers man the doors at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall as a line of coaches drops off 500 local young people on the pavement outside. The crowd, clad mainly in baseball caps and hooded jackets, breaks off into smaller groups, jostling and sharing jokes in the bitter cold of the winter evening, while others queue up and are searched before going inside. It’s just before Christmas and the teenagers, many of them members of local gangs or “street collectives”, have travelled from estates across the east London borough of Waltham Forest attracted by the promise of rap music, dance and entertainment.

But this is no ordinary gig and it wasn’t arranged by a major music promoter. Instead, behind the scenes lies a collective of two local housing associations, Waltham Forest’s arm’s length management organisation and the council’s Community Safety Unit. The object of the evening isn’t just to provide entertainment, but to have an impact that will stretch beyond the hall and back to the estates themselves.

“Defending Da Hood”, as the show is known, started life in September last year. The community safety unit identified significant problems with crime and “inter-group tension” between gangs in the area, but it decided not to rely solely on traditional tools such as antisocial behaviour orders and acceptable behaviour contracts. Instead, it got together ALMO Ascham Homes, London & Quadrant subsidiary Forest Homes and Community Based Housing Association to identify some of the groups involved in the trouble – and then invited them all along for an evening’s entertainment under the same roof. “We had a lot of people who had no real argument but they had tension,” says Michael Jervis, violent crime coordinator at the council.“We had to bring them together and say ‘what is the tension and is there a way we can solve it?’.”

The first event featured music, dancing and drama from a local theatre group. There was also a talk from the police about the dangers of gun crime, as well as an opportunity to discuss issues in smaller groups with facilitators from community-based groups.

More than 400 young people came along, drawn by the presence of local acts and lured by ads in local papers and flyers given out at youth groups. The organisers also targeted groups known to be involved in gang activity.

The event appeared to be a startling overnight success. The next month crime figures for the borough plunged by 40% and Waltham Forest dropped from third in the list of London’s hotspot boroughs to the mid-20s.

Tonight, it’s Defending Da Hood II and this time, local acts such as MC Ace, Youthwave, Tiny C and MC Dudes have their chance to impress the crowd. Many of those who have turned up were present at the first event and admit it gave them food for thought. Sixteen-year-old Patrick Woods, (not his real name), from Leyton, described how tension had built up in the area from an initial falling out between just two people. “Some stupid argument happens so the two estates in Leyton were caught up … Everyone has been watching each other.”

Another concern Woods has is the nature of the violence. “Nowadays no one fights fist-to-fist, they all use weapons … I do worry for some of my friends.”

This time round the focus has shifted from gang activity to teenage pregnancy – as a borough Waltham Forest has the 12th highest rate in London; Leyton has the highest in London.

As the teenagers file into the hall they are allocated seats at different tables and everyone receives goody bags containing sexual health information, along with a list of the acts who are going to play. When the entertainment stops half way through the evening for dinner, facilitators drawn from local community groups suggest to the young people they might like to talk through issues such as safe sex and sexual health.

The housing organisations involved hope this event will match the success of the first. Community Based Housing Association owns and manages 1600 homes in the borough, and chief executive Gary De Ferry says antisocial behaviour on estates is one of its top priorities. “Quality of life is a big thing for tenants and stopping crime and antisocial behaviour and creating sustainable communities is vital.”

We used to have windows smashed because young people were bored. There’s much less vandalism now Pam millington, forest homes

Pam Millington, Forest Homes

Pam Millington, housing manager for Forest Homes, agrees. “The aim really is to try to change lifestyles. We used to have lights and windows smashed every night because young people were just bored but now the vandalism has significantly reduced. Tonight is a totally different environment, much less threatening – in the first event you could sense the atmosphere in this place.”

Teenage pregnancy can also be a drain on resources and housing stock, adds Millington. “We are not telling them what to do but we are saying ‘here are the facts, these are the consequences, make your choice’.”

Drama group Breaking Through, made up mainly of local young people, tackles the subject head on in a short play about the dangers of unprotected sex. It manages to avoid preaching and its comic treatment of familiar scenarios of parties and peer pressure have the crowd cheering.

Sabrina Henry, 19, who lives on the Beaumont Estate, was one of the performers and herself gave birth to a son when she was 17. “I took advantage of services to help you stay on in education, so for me it didn’t have as much of a negative impact as it could have. I have not let it hold me back, but it is probably better for some people that it doesn’t happen at all.”

Henry adds that Breaking Through has the added advantage of presenting things from young people’s peer group perspective – avoiding the problem at school where “a lot of children don’t listen when the teacher is talking about sex education”.

Despite the cost of the event – £20,000 contributed by all the partners – the organisers, encouraged by the success of the first event, hope it will lead to both financial and social cost savings in the long term. Further events are planned, themed around other pressing social issues, and some of the partners have set up a local radio station, staffed by young people and due to hit the airwaves later this year.

Not every part of the entertainment has a message. Rap and dance acts, again mainly composed of local talent, entertain with no agenda. The Reverend George Hargreaves, faith communities project manager for Waltham Forest council, thinks this is important so as not to make young people feel like they are being targeted. “We have to remind other people that we were all young once. Just because someone is wearing a hat it doesn’t make them a bad lad,” he says. “We also have to show that there are benefits to being a good social person. It is clear these young people have worked very hard to do this tonight. While they are doing that they are not doing other things that could be causing a nuisance.”

But even when there is no particular message being put across, the event is quietly doing its job of improving community relations. Where else could you find a group of teenagers grilling police figures such as local superintendent David Grant about stop and search policies – and with such good humour? Special guest Peter Dixon, chair of the Housing Corporation, is quizzed about what he is doing “for the youth” and explains what the corporation does.

It’s a markedly different change of pace, admittedly, but the organisers say it is this integration that is a vital part of the event’s success.“Street culture is not normally found in the offices of those making decisions, and this leads to alienation,” says Hassett Auguste, chief executive of Ascham Homes. “We have got to reach out to them where they are, because the consequences of not reaching them are just too hard to contemplate. We’re not trying to control people, we want to work better with them.”

Councillor Barry Smith, cabinet member for community safety, agrees: “The key to dealing with the problems facing young people – and the problems they may cause others – is listening to them and considering their views very carefully. That’s what Defending Da Hood is all about.”