Growing up with gangs, poverty and knife crime – podcast
The Bollo youth club in Acton is barely a mile from wealthy Chiswick but to the teenagers who use it as a second home, it can feel like a world away. Its members tell Robert Booth how they navigate a life through poverty, gangs and knife crime. Plus: Helen Pidd on the crisis in school funding that is forcing schools to close early
In November 2018, Phillip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty visited the Bollo youth club in Acton, west London. At the time of his visit, the Bollo was having to move its premises to a building half its original size and the club members were upset and worried about the transition.
The Guardian’s social affairs editor, Robert Booth, talks to Anushka Asthana about how he and producer Joshua Kelly spent four months with two teenagers from the Bollo. They talk about the difficulties of life in an area riven by gang violence and huge inequality. Rising knife crime coincides with deep cuts to the UK’s youth facilities. Since 2012, 760 youth clubs have closed and 4,500 youth worker jobs have been lost, according to analysis by Unison. Since 2010, English councils have slashed 62% from their spending on youth services – more than £700m.
from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2uduO67
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