Combating youth violence: Damilola Taylor Trust launches Year of Hope 2020
2019 saw an unprecedented rise in knife crime in London. Despite the efforts of various charities working with young people to address the issue, the problem seems to grow even larger. It’s almost 20 years since schoolboy, Damilola was murdered by a gang of youths in Peckham, South London. The crime which shook the nation then and attracted public condemnation now seems to be normalising in society. The Damilola Taylor Trust was established in 2001 in memory of Damilola. Its mission is providing young people with opportunities to play, learn and live their lives free of fear and violence, and with optimism for the future. Over the last two decades since the loss of Damilola, the family through the Damilola Taylor Trust have been working to improve the lives of young people and steer them in the right path, away from gangs and violence. This work has earned the family the respect and admiration of the nation and in recognition of his selfless work Mr Richard Taylor was awarded an OBE by the Queen.
Year of Hope launch
On 27 November 2019 the 19th year anniversary of Damilola’s death, Mr Taylor brought together fellow anti-knife campaigners at The Ritzy cinema in Brixton to launch a 12-month campaign in which he hopes thousands of young people, youth workers and local communities will come together to tackle youth violence. A series of events have been planned for the one-year period leading up to the 20th anniversary of his son’s death. In an interview with the Evening Standard after the event, Mr Taylor said he was impressed by the work of Lib Peck who runs London’s Violence Reduction Unit which has adopted the public health approach, advocated by DTT at the 2018 Memorial lecture and backed by the Standard, to eliminate knife crime.
He said: “Investment in violence prevention is absolutely the way forward to guarantee a generational change. I want 2020 to be seen as a year of hope for all those that care for the well-being, safety and development of young people.”
Normalising violence
Mr Richard Taylor warned that society has become “normalised” to youth violence. He told the Standard: “It still pains me today as much as it did at the time. Something has gone badly wrong and I believe that only as a society can we put it right. It is not for me to answer questions about how violence became so normalised for the whole of society but we can start by challenging each other to be more caring” Damilola was just ten years old when he was stabbed to death in Peckham 19 years ago. Mr Taylor said of his son: ‘He was a visionary boy. His aim was to study medicine – he would have been a doctor. It’s been so difficult. Every year is another period of grief coming back. It’s a daily affair that we have to continue to live with this’. Mr Taylor added had Damilola fulfilled his dream of becoming a doctor, “He would now be one of the heroic NHS staff”. Amid rising knife crime fuelled by drugs, more than 25 teenagers were killed in 2019 in the capital, 23 of whom were stabbed to death.
“Take a second to consider how uncaring and violent society has become,” he said. “How is it that there are now hundreds of families like mine that have lost children to acts of violence?”
The year of hope activities
On 27 November 2019 the 19th year anniversary of Damilola’s death, Mr Taylor brought together fellow anti-knife campaigners at The Ritzy cinema in Brixton to launch a 12-month campaign in which he hopes thousands of young people, youth workers and local communities will come together to tackle youth violence.
A series of events have been planned for the one-year period leading up to the 20th anniversary of his son’s death. In an interview with the Evening Standard after the event, Mr Taylor said he was impressed by the work of Lib Peck who runs London’s Violence Reduction Unit which has adopted the public health approach, advocated by DTT at the 2018 Memorial lecture and backed by the Standard, to eliminate knife crime.
Various activities aimed at specific needs of young people have been planned for the year of hope. ‘There will be programs in schools, there will be community development programmes involving meetings with the community, with the parents. Because it’s a year of hope for all the young people, for them to change, to aspire further and more than they have been’ said Mr Taylor.
Specific activities planned include the Career Search and Skills Development programmes in collaboration with the Coop; a Life and Social Skills Training and mentoring Scheme supported by the Home Office and MOPAC; and the third annual Career Pathway Programme supported by Lysis Financial to provide access for young people who want to work in the city. Many young people who have participated in the previous two editions of the programme have secured internships and permanent jobs in the financial sector in the city. This successful programme will be extended to the 13 to 18 year olds in Secondary Schools in London in this ‘Year of hope’. Parents and guardians are advised to signpost any young person they know could benefit from these programme to the trust.
The year long event will be rounded up by a memorial service that will be held on 27 November 2020 at the Southwark cathedral with the outgoing Archbishop of York, Rev Dr Sentamu delivering a speech.
This article first appeared in Diaspora Voice.