Tom Dingwall from the Whosoever project shares what happened at their first event in Uxbridge on violent crime in Hillingdon Borough.
Last weekend, myself and a group of young people from the Uxbridge Parish held an anti-knife crime event at St Andrew’s Church, Uxbridge. Using the hashtag #LivesNotKnives, it was the first event from “Whosoever”, which will engage local young people through a series of events from September to July 2020.
The aim of this particular event was to raise awareness around youth violence in the Hillingdon Borough. The church was offered as an alternative where youth are provided with a place where they can belong, believe and become.
One young person bravely shared a personal story about being a victim of violent crime on two separate occasions in the town centre. Another young person shared from the Bible on how God calls us to be ambassadors of peace and how God’s peace is needed in these times. Representatives from the Metropolitan Police Service and Youth Parliament also attended and shared their views on knife crime and what they are doing to address local issues.
It was important to publicise this event; so we hand delivered 1,000 leaflets to local schools, churches and friends with information about it and future events. We also used social media to provide details of the event and the opportunity to sign up online for free tickets.
We’ll be distributing 2,500 leaflets across the Hillingdon Borough for the official Launch Party on 19 October, with the aim of gathering more young people being given the opportunity to know about and attend the events we’ll be running in future.
70 people attended our #LivesNotKnives anti-crime event, not including organisers. Positive feedback on the speakers, content and organisation of the event has been received by many, including the Metropolition Police, who gave the event a shout out on Twitter later that night.
Great event to talk about violent crime with Hillingdon young people at St Andrews Church last night. Well done to all involved! Then straight after it was back out for late night ASB and burglar hunting. Stop searches and results as usual!#Uxbridge #communityspirit pic.twitter.com/bf7hztZnkY
— Uxbridge Police (@MPSUxbridge) September 15, 2019
About Tom Dingwall
Tom is one of the project leaders for Whosoever and an active member of a church in Uxbridge.
Whosoever is a movement run by a group of young people from St Andrew’s and St Margaret’s in Uxbridge. Using events, workshops, video and social media, they plan to draw people their own age into the church community. Supported by The Spark Fund, Whosoever plan to run seven different events for young people in the Borough of Hillingdon.