Some early contenders
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
With just 10 days until nominations for this year’s Philip Lawrence Awards close on 7th November we thought we’d highlight a few projects putting themselves in the running. We’ve had inspirational projects from all over the country, and tackling a diverse range of issues. Below are a selection of the contenders.
Peacock Youth Academy, East London 
This east-end boxing club and gym can claim to have welcomed World Champion boxers Frank Bruno and Rick Hatton to train with them and had film stars Michael Caine and Orlando Bloom spar here to get in shape for film parts.
But now it’s making a name for itself teaching young people essential skills for gaining employment. The Peacock Youth Academy educates vulnerable and disadvantaged young people from a number of backgrounds and provides an alternative education in a multi-disciplinary setting.
Focussing on challenge based projects, a range of daily fitness activities, monitoring of dietary needs, peer mentoring and regular celebration of achievement, all tracked through a Personal Learning Plan entitled ‘The Peacock Passport’ they are helping more and more young people into employment. For 2011-12, The Peacock Gym Academy is the largest and most successful provider of alternative education in Newham.
Youth Mania, Pembrokeshire
A veritable, charitable, glee club set up by 16 year old Jen Biddle from South Wales, this music and drama youth group meet once a week to rehearse original Scripts and Pop/Musical numbers, and put on performances to raise money for local charities.
The supportive nature of the group and fact members are from a number of different schools has helped some members overcome problems with making new friends and overcome shyness and stage fright.
Their yearly goal is to find local sponsorship, to perform a fantastic show to raise money for local children’s charities. Last year their performance in a local theatre raised £800 for the children’s ward of the local hospital.
Common Ground United
, Birmingham
This typical English football team is made up of a number of different nationalities. But unlike the average Premier League team all Common Ground United’s footballers are from the local area of Smethwick, and all attend schools in the area.
It’s a football project aimed at uniting inner city young people from a diverse demographic and all the players are from different racial, cultural, and religious back grounds, coming together on the common ground of a shared love of sport.
Young people are not only the squad that competes in matches, they are also actively involved in the coaching, training and running of the club. The team self manage through their Facebook group and they are all ambassadors for the team.
Reclaim Our Name, Manchester
Initially this Manchester based project was called ‘Truth About Youth’ and it’s aim was to get cultural arts organisations engaged with young people, to open up their doors and allow young people to showcase their talents and gain confidence.
After the riots that changed. The project had to change it’s aim, taking away the focus from creative arts and re-allocating time and energy on shifting peoples perspectives of young people – away from labels like “feral rats.”
The relationship built with adults in the local community before the riots was destroyed. But with the ‘Reclaim Our Name’ message the project is working to shine a light on the positive young people in the community, and trying to break some of the stereotypes they face.
