Award winning project which offers young people an alternative to gang life

An award winning project which offers young people an alternative to gang life will be rolled out across the borough over the next two years.

Lambeth Council will mark the launch of 2 XL, the follow on programme to the X-it project, at a ceremony held at the Pyramid Youth and Community Centre, Willington Road, Clapham, on Tuesday night. (June 9)

The event will include a speech from Solomon Smith, a former gang member who turned his life around through the programme. The 23-year-old now works for Lambeth Council Children and Young People's Service as a Youth Support Worker, and is about to complete his first year of a degree course in Youth Work at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Other guest speakers include Lambeth Council Leader, Steve Reed, Lambeth's Youth Mayor, Samuel Manley, and Children and Young People's Service council executives.

2 XL is part of Lambeth Council's Young and Safe action plan, which ensures vulnerable young people and those involved in the criminal justice system are able to access effective support. Since the introduction of Young & Safe, violent crime has been significantly reduced in Lambeth over the past two years. Lambeth council is one of the first local authorities in the country to have a dedicated action plan tackling the issue.

Lambeth Council's original X-it programme, which was one of the first dedicated gang exit programmes to be piloted by a London council, scooped the prestigious Children's Services Award in the Guardian newspaper's Public Services Award contest in 2007. The award followed an evaluation of the programme that showed 72 percent of participants (18 out of 25 young people) had desisted from offending during their involvement in the programme.

Cllr Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Council, said: "Only a minority of young people get involved in crime but when they do we take action. In many cases it's a lack of alternatives that leads some young people into a lifestyle that can put them on the wrong path - which is why it has been vital for our gang exit project to work."

He added: "We've cut the number of young people getting into trouble with the police by almost a third over the past two years in Lambeth, and tackling youth crime remains a top issue for the council - we owe it to the young people themselves and to society as a whole."

The innovative 2 XL programme will use intensive support through group work sessions, residential courses and leadership programmes to develop self awareness and empowerment amongst young people to help them make positive choices. It is based on the original X-it pilot project, which has helped to develop close working links with a number of agencies including the police, community safety teams, tenant associations, youth workers and young people themselves.

Former "Somerleyton Crew gang member, Solomon, stole motorbikes, mopeds, cars, and burgled homes in Brixton for three years before he turned his life around thanks to the X-it project. He now runs his own business, 'Street Platinum', which holds community event days where he lives with his family on the Moorlands Estate, is about to complete his first year at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he studies Youth Work, and is employed on a part-time basis by Lambeth Council Youth Services as a peer mentor on the X-it programme.

He said: "I was a member of the Somerleyton Crew from the age of 13. To us stealing a car, motorbike, moped, or burgling a home seemed like fun to us because we were so bored and there was nothing to do in the area where we lived. It never felt like I was part of a gang or that what we were doing was criminal - we were just friends who lived in the same area and hung about with one another.

He added: "This lifestyle led to me becoming well-known by the police and local housing association, which is when Lambeth Council stepped in and offered me the opportunity to attend X-it. I was told it could open the door to an alternative life - and it has done just that. Now I have a clear direction in life and my aim is to work with young people who are in a similar situation to the one I was once in. After completing the X-it programme I was given the opportunity by Lambeth Council to study a GNVQ in Youth Work which has given me the qualifications needed to go on to study Youth Work at degree level. I can't believe I'm about to finish my first year at University - but its true!"

2 XL will be introduced at youth centres and other locations across north, southeast and southwest Lambeth over the next two years. A minimum of 120 young people will be recruited every year to each of the three areas to work as either youth or peer mentors. Mentors will receive full training and could go on to study a degree in youth work at University.

The original X-it pilot programme was highlighted in the recommendations made in the Home Affairs Committee report, Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System. The report said successful gang exit schemes at a local level like X-it are the best means of combating the influence of gang culture and peer pressure.

In the past twelve months Lambeth Council has made an additional £2million investment in youth services, youth centres will soon be open seven days a week, and additional support has been given to parents through the Parentline phone line for parents concerned that their children are in trouble.

For further information visit our 2XL programme page.