Positive Change

Supported with over £1.5 million of funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Positive Change is London Youth’s new programme delivered in partnership with our member organisations (Flipside, My Generation, Artefacts Edutainment, Central Eltham Youth Project, Mile End Community Project) and making a critical social intervention. We’re working across five deprived London neighbourhoods to provide alternative pathways for 2,000 young people at risk of and/or involved in antisocial, offending or gang affiliated behaviours, re-engaging them with employment, education or training. 

In Lambeth, Lewisham, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Kensington & Chelsea we are delivering the programme with and through locally-led, trusted and themselves sustainable institutions. We are not delivering a fixed-life initiative from scratch but building on foundations that have been in communities (literally) for decades. The five clubs already have themselves relationships with local authorities which this programme’s sustainability plan will, effectively, leverage.   

Early indicators from current delivery demonstrate the programme’s capacity for achieving results. For example, within  four  months  of  beginning  their  work  our  outreach  team  has made positive  engagements  with 872  young  people  at  risk.  In a further fillip for the programme, Lord Victor Adebowale, former chair of the London Youth Crime Prevention Board has recently agreed to chair the programme board of Positive Change. 

The programme has four developmental phases:

• Inreach -  using an assessment framework to engage young people at-risk of gang involvement, crime and anti-social-behaviour

• Values – intensive group-work plus cognitive behaviour therapy for the most disaffected

• Positive activities – individual skill-building and the opportunity for small teams of young people to design, lead and learn from their own community projects

• Routes out – creating alternative pathways to employment and life-support 

Positive Change guides each young person through a personal development programme, referred to as a ‘Journey of Change’, encouraging and enabling them to take positive control of critical life choices. 

Crucially, Positive Change, like all our programmes, will not ‘only’ deliver positive outcomes to those with whom it works directly. Working with and strengthening local community organisations across London, as we deliver, we will simultaneously exploit existing facilities and expertise and build long term capacity in communities, adding real strategic value.