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Leap awards: Peer mentors with their certificates at the Abbey Centre |
Confronting conflict: Pioneering peer mentors to offer advice in youth clubs
YOUNG people at risk of being sucked into knife gangs have been trained to work as “peer mentors” in youth clubs across Westminster.
Leap Confronting Conflict awarded certificates to 27 young people in the Abbey Centre in Great Smith Street, Victoria.
They had passed the pioneering Fear and Fashion programme aiming to empower young people with formal training to work in youth clubs as peer mentors. The idea is that teenagers will listen to people their own age and from similar backgrounds.
Harley Smyth, 18, one of the trained facilitators, said: “Becoming a facilitator made me feel I had achieved something worthwhile and I enjoy being able to give advice to other teenagers who might otherwise end up in trouble.”
Councillor Daniel Astaire, lead member for community protection, said the “lure” of knife crime came mainly from neighbouring boroughs.
He added: “Teenagers are more likely to listen to people they can identify with. It shows them the positive direction their own lives can take if they make the right choices.”
For more information contact 020 7561 3700. |
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