One Mic, One Life
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
A music, dance and comedy concert has acted as the launch pad for a housing group to address gang culture in London.
Project: One Mic, One Life
Funding: Concert funded with £8,500 from Camden Council's Youth Opportunity Fund
Aim: To break down rivalry and territorialism between groups
A music, dance and comedy concert has acted as the launch pad for a housing group to address gang culture in London.
One Housing Group's youth services team held a concert last month to try to change young people's attitudes towards knife and gun crime.
The One Mic, One Life concert follows a similar concert last year that brought together young people from youth clubs and projects in the Camden area of London.
Promoted by youth clubs and organisations across the borough, it featured up-and-coming young artists including Donaeo, Bashy and Wretch 32.
Kamilah McCalman, youth development officer at One Housing Group, says she has seen the damaging effects of gun and knife crime through her work with young people.
"We have to change young people's attitudes in order to combat this problem," she says. "By bringing them together through their common love of dance, music and comedy, we can start breaking down the rivalry between groups and help young people to realise the negative effects of this kind of behaviour."
Following the concert, One Housing Group has set up a youth forum, which has representatives from each of Camden's youth clubs. The forum meets monthly to discuss and develop strategies to tackle the issue of gun and knife crime.
Camden councillor James King says the concert was a fun way of bringing young people from across the borough together to build trust and reduce tension and crime. "Projects such as these can begin to break down the barriers that lead to gang rivalry," he says.
