Over the past few weeks of the Choose Life Drop the Knife
campaign we have been promoting our campaign all over the place.
Here is an update on our progress:
Arrangements are being made for us to present in youth
clubs, schools and partner organisations to educate others in regards to our campaign, The Staying Safe Project and knife crime in general. The article we wrote from the 99% campaign blog
received lots of positive feedback and Lee Jasper (who is a leading social
justice campaigner) placed our article on his blog; which was very encouraging. We
have since linked with him on twitter and are looking for meet with him soon. We attended the CIH Housing Conference in
Manchester in June to promote our campaign further. We were able to showcase
our work to other housing associations, councils and youth organisations. We gathered
feedback from the conference attendees using the ipads. It was a great
opportunity to promote our work to other organisations who are looking to carry
out similar work with young people.
Over 337 companies took part in the exhibition
attended by delegates, visitors, sponsors and young people from Peabody special
projects. The aim of the conference was to share best practice with housing
professionals and provide an opportunity for organisations to promote their
services whilst gaining insight of other services through networking that might
benefit stakeholders.
Robert Mannion, head of services Willow park Housing
was very impressed with the way in which we presented and our professionalism.
He explains: 'Sayim and Abu are the most inspirational people I
have met at this event with more young people like these knife crime will be
solved in no time.' A total of 70 surveys were completed for Staying Safe
gathering feedback and future contacts.
We also attended The Urban Classic, Waltham Forest Town
Hall Complex, organised by Bigga Fish. The event featured musicians including
UK urban stars Fazer, Miss Dynamite, Devlin and Skepta. The Historic art deco
Town Hall was used as a backdrop for what was considered one of the most
entertaining outdoor events of the year. The event was well attended by young
people - over 3,000 were in attendance. Although this was not necessarily an
opportunity for campaign leadership members to promote their campaign, members
of the team still felt the need to speak with some young people about their
project and what they aim to achieve.
We are planning to attend Notting Hill Carnival in
collaboration with Bigga Fish this Sunday to promote our campaign. We have ordered
promotional material including t-shirts, whistles, lanyards and flyers to
present ourselves professionally and strengthen our campaign.
