Crossing frontlines

Young people developing positive identities in a changing world.

Young people leading in communities and finding the confidence to cross the frontlines of faith, race, territory, culture.

Phase one of Crossing Frontlines brings together the learning from 3 community based London youth projects that Leap is currently delivering.

Leadership & Reconciliation is looking at intergenerational conflict on one urban estate. With no community centres or youth clubs, young people sometimes congregate in large numbers, causing distrust and distress among older tenants. Over two years, Leap will provide regular structured group work along with residential training, enabling the young people to work as peer trainers, mediators and educators on their estate. The aim is that they can come together with older residents to create dialogue and understanding between the generations, pool skills and know-how, and work as a powerful community resource, solving their own local problems.

Fear & Fashion is tackling knife crime, in one inner city borough. Intensive behaviour-changing work is targeted at small groups of young people who currently carry, use or are at risk of carrying knives and other weapons. Emergent young leaders will take part in residential or more intensive training, supporting them to become peer trainers. Some of these young people are now working in their local communities running workshops, acting as role models and peer educators. Multi agency working is supporting their progression.

Working with potential perpetrators of racial hatred gently explores racism and racist conflicts, examining what it means for participants to be young, white and male in Britain today. In subtle ways they can be supported to explore their identity and where that rubs against the identity of others, begin to decipher confusion between culture, faith and values, and be helped to confront and move on from entrenched positions. The project is creating safe spaces for young people to have dangerous conversations, which helps to unravel who they are.

These projects are developing and trialing new ways of working, discovering fresh techniques of bringing groups together across the local frontlines that can often damage and divide them.

To find out more about Crossing Frontlines read Community Cohesion, contact Jessie.

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