Poverty, lack of employment, training and housing could fuel future gang activity, St Giles Trust has warned at an inaugural meeting of the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee meeting held on Thursday 26 January 2012.


As the first meeting heard evidence from organisations working to tackle the capital’s gang problem, St Giles Trust Chief Executive Rob Owen warned that the prevailing social and economic climate could increase the potential for gang activity to grow.


“It would be a terrible shame to undermine excellent progress made by all agencies and organisations working to tackle London’s gang problem over the past couple of years,” said Rob Owen.  “St Giles Trust has been working alongside Probation, the Metropolitan Police and other charities to help young people break away from gangs and prevent them becoming involved in this lifestyle.”


St Giles Trust is calling for a joint response from all agencies working with disadvantaged young people and a focus on funding services which have been shown to make a real impact in tackling the gang problem.


For example, St Giles Trust was funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust’s Transition to Adulthood programme to deliver a pilot programme working with young offenders in Croydon, many of whom were involved in gangs.  As well as providing one-to-one casework, the project worked closely with police, probation, local authority and community groups, brokering all local services to work seamlessly to support the project’s clients.   As a result, gang related crime in the area almost ceased during the summer of the project’s operation.


“Often some of the most practical, common sense approaches are the most effective.  Addressing issues such as stabilising someone’s housing, helping them get their finances sorted, engaging them with college or further training.  This isn’t about toolkits and checkboxes.  It simply offers a patient, persistent source of support for young people who lack stability and structure.”


Young people involved in gang-related crime can be difficult to engage and often only trust people who have been through similar experiences to their own.  St Giles Trust advocates the use of trained ex-offenders to offer credible support but stresses the need for them to become professionally skilled to do this.  


This approach has been adopted successfully through St Giles Trust’s own projects, in particular through its SOS Project which supports young offenders to rehabilitate.  Many of these are involved in gang-related crime.  The project is staffed entirely by reformed ex-offenders who have undergone specialist, vocational training coupled with first-hand knowledge of the issues their clients are facing.  This ideally places them to provide high quality, credible support to their clients.  The project has an active caseload of around 450 clients and delivers workshops in schools across London to help young people getting involved in gangs and gang-related crime.  A formal evaluation into SOS’s impact is due to be published in the near future but early indications show that it in having an extremely positive impact.