August is right in the middle of the school holidays, which is also the height of activity for youth clubs and services across the city – their provision of fun and educational activities for young people means they are less likely to become socially isolated or engage in crime. This month, we spoke to SkyWay, a youth organisation based in Hackney, about the important work they’re doing to empower young people and create opportunities for a positive future.

What does your charity do?
We support vulnerable and disadvantaged young people aged 8 to 25 years living in deprived inner-London neighbourhoods, enabling them to achieve personal goals, realise their potential and contribute positively to their community.

We offer free-at-the-point-of-access youth engagement programmes including youth club evenings, personal development sessions, youth volunteering, holiday programmes, employment support, and sports and wellbeing sessions. Since 2001, we’ve engaged over 13,000 young people.

What challenges are there in east London with regards to the issues that your service users face?
The following issues directly affect families and young people we engage:

● Safety. Crime rates are high and young people feel unsafe in the local area which can lead to attachment to local gangs and carrying weapons to feel safe and secure
● Disengagement. There is a lack of trust of service providers and authorities which results in disengagement from the community and school
● Isolation. A lack of accessible activities, positive role models, and support and guidance available
● Mental health issues. Families and young people report mental health issues to us including depression, anxiety and ADHD. Often these issues are seen as ‘normal’ and no support is sought
● Poverty of aspiration. A lack of ambition driven by a belief they will achieve little in life and their direction in life is predetermined
● Educational attainment and school exclusions. Educational achievement is higher than outside London but there is also a very high rate of school exclusions/managed moves to other schools/Boroughs
● Community cohesion. Increasing gentrification is making more historic residents feel increasingly isolated from the community. This is particularly an issue for younger people feeling disconnected and isolated from the wider community
● Generational unemployment. Unemployment statistics suggest there is a ‘core’ group of people where no member of the family is, or ever has been, employed who are not accessing opportunities or face significant barriers that means they are not able to sustain work in the long-term

Do you have an inspirational story/moment about your work such as a case study that you would like to share?
Charlie attended the local youth club and was involved in workshops, sports activities and going on trips. She had a troubled upbringing living with various family members and was struggling to find a place where she “belonged”.

Charlie was shocked when she heard that an innocent schoolgirl she knew had been killed in a ‘drive-by shooting’ by members of a local gang. Both girls grew up in the same area and had attended our youth club. For Charlie it was a wake-up call because she realised it could easily have been her. Charlie was mixing with boys who were members of gangs and even though she had managed to stay out of trouble she had still been asked to ‘hold’ stuff, like drugs and weapons. She had always said “no”, but realised that she could not be around that sort of thing anymore.

Charlie was vulnerable. At the time she had been having problems at home and was living rough, ‘sofa surfing’ at friends. Thankfully, her life completely turned around when SkyWay helped her to find somewhere to live, and she joined the SkyWay peer programme where she trained to deliver workshops on sexual health, money skills, healthy eating and sports to schoolchildren and became a trained peer mentor and youth worker. She really enjoyed the work – it helped build up her confidence and the other young people could relate to her because she was close in age and had similar experiences to them.

Despite all the obstacles Charlie got her GCSE’s and went on to college. After college she began working full-time while also working once a week as a paid youth worker with SkyWay. Charlie found the most satisfaction in giving back to her community.

Charlie is an example of what can be achieved with the right support, guidance, resilience and determination. In Charlie’s own words: “SkyWay helped me a lot. They made sure I got somewhere in life. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know where I’d be”.

What are the current challenges that your organisation is facing?
We are well-established and trusted in the community with high numbers of young people wanting to engage with us and the activities we run. All our activities are free-at-the-point-of-access so we need to ensure we have the finances to run activities, the right level of staff to meet the demand, and the administrative and management support to ensure our work is promoted and maintained at a high level.

We are currently developing our daytime offer from our youth club to enable the local community to use as a hub which in turn will improve our ability to engage with parents and the wider community. We are also looking at ways to increase our unrestricted income through hiring out our multi-use games area, gym, and music studio when they are not being used by the young people.

If you’d be interested in learning more about SkyWay as well as ways in which you might be able to support, please contact Sheetal Mistry sheetal.mistry@elba-1.org.uk.