Why it was needed

There is very little for working class teenagers to do in the East Dulwich and Peckham areas of South East London. Particularly in the East Dulwich area, there are lots of big private schools, with amazing facilities and grounds that children and young people from state schools haven’t been able to access. Private schools which are often classified as charities have been put under pressure by the Labour government to start sharing their facilities. I teamed up with some other young adults from the Woodcraft Folk, educational youth movement and children’s charity to see what we could do.

What's being done

I am 21 and I run a youth group on Thursday nights for 13-17 year olds from Peckham and East Dulwich, with other young adult helpers. Like other Woodcraft groups, our focus is a programme of social education, with strong principles in, co-operation, peace, sustainability, equality, creativity and social justice.

Our teenagers have direct input into the group's programme which has so far featured; video making, topic-discussion on locally produced films (on gun crime and rap & grime music), local underground musicians giving talks and showcasing their videos, street dance classes, smoothie-making, co-operative sports, ice-skating nights, teambuilding games, t-shirt design, music making and democracy activities.

We now have a ethnically diverse group of 20 young teenager who regually attend, along with 4 young adult helpers who help me run the group.

Notable successes in the group have included our Jack Petchey Award winner Melika (13), who has used her award money to help expand the group to 20 members, with fun promotional activities, and 2 camps involving other local groups in their first weekend camps.

How it started

Would anyone else like to share activities on what to do with teenagers in a youth groups?

More

I secured funds from London's Capital Community Foundation and organisational support from the local Woodcraft Folk (www.woodcraft.org.uk).

After writing to the local private school and getting the go-ahead to use their grounds for charitable purposes, I opened group for 13-17 year-olds and enlisted the help of a few local teenagers to help me promote the group in the two local state schools, through the use of flyers and presentations.