The Project Directory

To resource, support and amplify the work that churches are doing together in South London to address serious violence affecting young people

Our Mission: The Ben Kinsella Trust campaigns for action and justice for those affected by knife crime and educates young people so that they can make positive choices to stay safe.
Our Vision: No family or community should suffer the loss of a life to knife crime.

Our workshops change young people’s attitudes to knife crime; debunking the myth that carrying a knife will protect you. They strengthen peer values; ensuring young people give better advice to each other and challenge peers who are carrying (or thinking of carrying) a knife.

We campaign for action and justice for those affected by knife crime and our campaigns have won numerous awards in recognition of their success. We consistently campaign for change; challenging government, businesses and society to ensure everyone takes responsibility for tackling knife crime.

Bringing Hope (BH) was established in 2004 as a consortium (statutory, voluntary, community and faith sector partnership) and at the time, responded to the serious impact and devastations associated with gangs, guns, knives, and violence in Birmingham. We subsequently became a registered charity in 2008.

Since our inception we have developed competences and experiences working with offenders, ex-offenders, associated criminality, serious violence, and those not in employment education or training. Importantly, our aim is to address the root issues of social exclusion, crime, and violence, which includes working with employers and other agencies to help improve our clients’ life opportunities such as jobs or self- employment and other business options.

CC provides support to people affected by domestic violence and abuse.

CHIPS aims to bring about peace and reconciliation in areas of conflict or tension. We have over 57 years’ experience helping communities in the UK, Cyprus, India, the Philippines, Northern Ireland and Uganda; with our current projects being in Northern Ghana and Brixton, UK.

We help communities build futures free from violent conflict through practical projects that both tackle the root causes of the division and bring the sides together to build trust and healthy relationships.

Our work is underpinned by four values which inform all that we do:

1. We only go where we are invited by the community – peace cannot be imposed upon communities in conflict.
2. We live in the heart of the conflict – so our teams can fully understand the challenges faced by the community.
3. We build relationships with both sides – we seek to understand everyone’s perspective.
4. We are committed for the long term – sustained peace takes many years to build. We do not bring change ourselves. Instead, we empower the community to effect lasting grassroots change. In our experience, this is the most likely means of building lasting peace.

We are not prescriptive in the tools we use; we involve affected populations in every decision-making process to ensure that the practical projects we do are meeting their most prioritised needs, then we interweave key tools and theories of peacemaking and of bringing divided communities together with these practical projects.

CHIPS has been working with young people in Brixton for 9 years through detached youth work and youth work in partnership with schools, the PRU and other established charities (mentoring sessions for those at risk of exclusion or already excluded, and lunch clubs), and with the wider community through shared meals and activities.

CHIPS currently runs a number of youth club sessions for a variety of age groups; which include creative ventures such as dance, art and music sessions. We partner with local organisations, institutions and individuals to maximise positive and sustainable impact for the whole community.

Some of the activities we run include:

• Youth Drop-In and Mentoring sessions
• Dance and Mentoring workshops in primary schools to support children on the verge of exclusion
• Compassionate listening in the aftermath of serious violence incidents
• Helping Ears Network – a network of parents and carers trained to support other parents and carers
• Community events aimed at bringing the community together.

CRiBS works in schools promoting Growing Faith and Living Values. We seek to teach Christianity and support children and young people pastorally from a variety of backgrounds.

Raising Champions through Sport and Mentorship. Details on website.

To equip young people to make drug-free choices. This includes work on county lines, grooming, peer resistance and other life skills.

We do workshops for young people and parents, with training for community and youth workers on county lines.

To provide platforms to hard to reach young people via creating mentoring.

We provide mentoring to young people in or leaving gangs and that are involved in street culture, we work with elder members of the community who were also involved in gangs and street culture, this method provides the much needed trust and inspiration the young people need.

To transform young peoples lives with God’s love through sport and support. We do this through engaging with children and young people in a variety of ways. Firstly, our schools work allows us to interact with young people daily, more specifically through our core services of mentoring and chaplaincy. This allows our staff members to support and guide young people as necessary. We also equip churches to run KICK Academies which are community based sports provision outside of school time. These allow local churches to be among children in the local area, embed the gospel within sessions and build relationships to provide and safe and secure space for children and young people.

Lifeline is a mentoring charity supporting young people and their families and communities to be more resilient to serious gang violence. SW!TCH is our youth programme and draws on LifeLine’s 15 years’ experience of working with young people through our award-winning VIP Mentoring scheme. Today’s SW!TCH programmes bring solutions to young people that are in danger of becoming involved in serious youth violence or have poor mental health.

In addition we provide Parent Carer Champion support networks, and community Capacity Building teams that help neighbourhoods come together and develop response plans to incidents of serious gang violence.

Early intervention, resilience training on drugs , alcohol and knife crime and hate crime.

Our main programme is the Life Skills Primary DAaRT Programme where we educate primary Year 6 children over 10 weeks on resilience training on Drugs, alcohol, knife crime and hate crime.

Learning Through Football – using football to engage, develop and empower young people.

NPV Football Development uses football to develop children and young people from the age of 4 to 16 years old. We engage with young people aged 16+ who reside in neighbourhoods that are impacted on by gangs. We use the football to develop these young people to become qualified coaches who in turn lead the younger children in football sessions thus becoming positive role models for the children to aspire to.

No More Knives Tour is a partnership with the local council, the local police force, The Message Trust and the local church working together to inform, equip and empower young people in the High schools about the dangers of of knife crime and enabling the youth to see that they can change their communities making it safer. We use music to connect with the young people using one of The Message Trust bands. OTC, SoulBox and Amongst Wolves.

Oasis ultimate aim is for each person to thrive and reach their God given potential

Oasis Hub Waterloo is a ground-breaking charity providing a broad and inclusive range of community development services for vulnerable and isolated people living in Lambeth & Southwark. We aim to build communities that are healthy, safe, supportive and full of opportunity, where each individual is supported to reach their full potential in life. Our services incorporate two Academy schools, a children’s centre, a city farm, sports programmes, targeted and community youth programmes, a foodbank, debt and immigration advice centre, projects focusing on wellbeing and exercise, a library, a community centre and adult learning programmes.

Our current strategy has the audacious goal that by 2025 Oasis Hub Waterloo will be a national example of how a community can thrive, together reducing inequality, and realising opportunity for all. We will be able to evidence how our holistic, model of community works to create real change in people’s lives.

We are deeply intentional on co-developing and co-delivering youth and community services which are based around the individuals and collective internal and external assets. In line with our organisational strategy, this would lead to Oasis Youth Service being successful in the following ways:

• More young people being able to positively manage their mental health and wellbeing.
• More young people remaining and achieving in education, employment and enterprise.
• Greater awareness and harmony between parents/carers and their children.
• More young people feeling safer within their communities.
• More young people becoming positive role models in their community.
• GP’s and other primary care services not needed as much by young people.

We use the power of football and the Palace brand to change the lives of young people across south London, particularly the most hard-to-reach and hard-to-help. We work with over 13,000 people each year, inspiring them to find a better path and to lead a healthier life.

Working with young people at risk of exclusion from school due to violence or other social and emotional behaviour. We offer Positive Peace groups where we work both in small groups and one to one, building a narrative and skills around peace and conflict.

Mission or vision is to build more peaceful communities.

We empower communities to end youth violence, through expert training, advocacy, research, co-development of therapeutic services, and direct support to affected families.

Providing a safe environment where young people can learn new skills, be encouraged and find themselves through different creative means that our organisation provides.

Making Disciples of Christ

Voyage was established up in 1998 by the Metropolitan Black Police Association to address issues of racial disproportionality following the MacPherson report 1998, which was prompted by Stephen Lawrence’s racially motivated death.

Our name – Voyage – stands for Voice Of Youth And Genuine Empowerment.

We want to empower marginalised young black and minority ethnic people and provide them with the self-awareness and motivation to transform themselves and their communities. We aim to enable them to sustain successful partnerships and meaningful relationships and to:

• Reduce crime in at-risk boroughs by challenging the need to join gangs.
• Improve the community’s trust and confidence in the police.
• Augment participation in community structures and stimulate positive representation of black and minority communities across localised participation structures.
• Raise educational attainment levels in secondary schools; particularly for black and minority ethnic communities.

We give young people the opportunity to speak and be heard within their communities. Our work seeks to challenge injustice and structural inequality.

Voyage works with disadvantaged young people aged 14-25 years old, predominately from African, Caribbean, South Asian and a broad range of mixed heritage backgrounds. Our staff, trustees and volunteers all have lived experience of the challenges that our young people experience such as institutional racism, barriers to employment and further education, and over-representation in the criminal justice system.

To engage in long-term relationships that empower young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to complete their education, avoid anti-social behaviour and ultimately become independent and confident contributors within their communities.