Janette Collins MBE, is Founder of  The Crib, an organisation operating across Islington and Hackney, that provides educational, artistic and cultural activities for children, young people and their families.

What does your charity do?
The Crib detached and outreach project provides educational, artistic and cultural activities, which enable and encourage inclusive and positive participation in society by children, young people and their families. Operating across two boroughs, Islington and Hackney, The Crib provides a challenging, inspiring platform for all young people, regardless of background or circumstance, especially those who are at risk of offending/have difficulties maintaining continuity in mainstream education and need support to overcome barriers to access existing services and opportunities.

Through our interventions are objective is to invest in people – we provide opportunities and experiences for young people who would otherwise not have access to them. We do this by helping young people to make the most of their free time and create future pathways by supporting initiatives
for confidence and skills development

Our goals are:
– To connect with and be available to young people and families in the settings of their choosing; to work with them through personal and social education programmes that help them learn about and recognise new opportunities in their environment; to develop effective and meaningful relationships with young people and families through routine contact; mutual trust; respect; and understanding; and to recognise and address the needs of young people and families.
– To bridge the understanding gap between the local community and young people, to raise awareness of issues affecting young people, and to act as advocates for and alongside them in the larger community and the world. To support appropriate action that young people take resulting from their own ideas and suggestions

Over 1,500 young people participate actively each year and 4,000 young people and families are involved.

What are the challenges your service users face, and how does your organisation help users overcome them?
COVID 19 forced us, along with everyone else, to deliver programmes related to the pandemic. The majority of our funding was focused on the need to feed families and lessen isolation, which made it challenging for our small team to identify those who needed help by knocking on doors. We came to understand that the problem wasn’t simply hunger and isolation, but also a lack of resources to help young people accomplish their schoolwork and other forms of creative expression. We reached out to the ELBA community for assistance because we are a part of it, and they generously donated laptops and raspberry pies to our organisation. When the lockdown was lifted, we started a study group for the young people who needed extra help. This support was incredible. We were able to identify the families and residents that needed assistance.

Do you have an inspirational story/moment about your work that you would like to share?
Boroughs United is a biannual anti-violence movement that brings together young people from several London boroughs to celebrate community cohesiveness and honour young people who tragically lost their lives as a result of street violence. At the Hackney Empire Theatre, 1,300 people attended Boroughs United’s peer-driven pan-London talent exhibition that involves 200 participants and is led by 25 young people in a peace campaign to discourage teenage violence and emphasise young people’s positive contributions to society. In order to highlight the number of young people who die throughout London and the fact that Hackney is a safe neighbourhood, our project brings together young people from other boroughs.

Our organisation was in desperate need of renovation and a fresh start because it was looking pretty boring. We got in touch with ELBA as a volunteer crew had painted the premises four years earlier. A group of volunteers arrived in force and managed to perform a miracle in a single day. Despite the fact that none of the volunteers on this team had prior decorating experience, they were nevertheless able to make the project welcoming for our guests, families, and kids.

Our organisation was in desperate need of renovation and a fresh start because it was looking pretty boring. We got in touch with ELBA as a volunteer crew had painted the premises four years earlier. A group of volunteers arrived in force and managed to perform a miracle in a single day. Despite the fact that none of the volunteers on this team had prior decorating experience, they were nevertheless able to make the project welcoming for our guests, families, and kids.

What kind of support are you in need of right now and how might volunteering fit into that?
Funding is currently required to hire young workers for our youth session, which take place three times each week. We currently rely on volunteers to keep our sessions on track. Free training in youth and community work would be fantastic to assist us further improve our volunteers.

We also would like cooperate funding to continue our deliver of Boroughs United anti-violence campaign in the future.