Solutions come in small packages

Remember how it was a year ago as we began to contemplate life after the riots? We had witnessed a sustained assault from an ‘alienated and disaffected feral underclass cut off from the mainstream’. Young people were the problem. We were doomed.

Remember how it was a couple of weeks ago as we began to contemplate life after the London Olympics? We had witnessed a festival of excellence, friendship and respect that brought out the best in all of us. Young people were our salvation. We were saved.

If only it were that simple. And of course the truth about what has happened to our young people and what lies ahead sits somewhere between the lows of August 2011 and the highs of London 2012.

The problem with major events is that they prompt grandiose responses from the great and good, which can leave mere mortals feeling disconnected. Often, the most effective solutions to major difficulties come in small packages.

However desirable it may sound, we cannot transform the life chances of a whole generation at a stroke; we can, however, transform the life chances of a whole series of individuals.

And it’s by making these small-scale one-at-a-time changes that organisations like Groundwork are seeking to improve things in what some persist in calling broken Britain.

A couple of examples from the DfE Young People Friendly Neighbourhoods programme, which Groundwork and its partners have been operating in ‘difficult’ estates across the country.

On one estate a Groundwork youth worker had been slowly building a relationship with young men who had been causing trouble at a community centre. He had been subjected to verbal abuse on many occasions, but persisted in keeping up his side of the conversation.

Eventually, while working on his laptop, the young men approached him to share that they had intended to throw a water bomb at him, but had decided not to when they realised they might damage his computer. This demonstration of them checking their own behaviour without challenge represents a small but significant step forward. The youth worker is now planning to engage the group in more focused activities to bring them back into the mainstream.

A teenager on an estate plagued by anti-social behaviour has been persuaded to distance herself from a group of friends responsible for much of the trouble and become involved in planning community events.

With the support of a dedicated youth worker she has started a college course in art and design and looks set to become the first member of her family to go to university.

Earth-shattering? Probably not. Life-changing? Quite possibly. Just two small case studies that show what can be achieved. And we are repeating this process thousands of times over across the country, securing training and employment opportunities for young people in danger of moving beyond the margins of society, changing lives one life at a time.