Last week was one of those weeks when you appreciate the kind of difference you could make as a politician and candidate. (When you’re up to your neck in mail merges or stuffing envelopes or delivering leaflets it doesn’t always feel like that!)
I invited Jack Straw to visit a local project in my constituency (Manchester Withington) – The Old Moat Youth Outreach Project. Part-funded by the Labour Council, I guess you could describe it as a youth centre-plus – a place where local teenagers can take part in activities such as photography, arts and cooking. It’s also a place where the young people who use it feel safe and can talk about their hopes and fears with peers and adults who are not their parents.
Situated only a few hundred metres from the scene of a terrifying ‘gangland-style’ shooting a week earlier where teenagers aged 16 and 18 were shot at close range in a nearby bookies, the centre’s work couldn’t be more pertinent. One of the teenagers died over the weekend and the other is still critically ill in hospital. There is a lot of fear in the community at large, and amongst young people in particular.
Admittedly, when Sharon Bell, the wonderful project manager, told the kids of the imminent visit she had to correct a minor misunderstanding.
‘No, it’s not Jack Dee, the comedian’, she told them. ‘It’s Jack Straw, one of the people who run the country!’
Notwithstanding their initial confusion, the teenagers we met appreciated the significance of the visit. Manchester Withington is a diverse constituency, and facilities like this play a vital role in giving local young people – who don’t necessarily have access to all the extracurricular activities of some of their better off neighbours – opportunities and aspirations beyond the pressures of their peers.
By turning up and listening to young people, Jack – Straw that is – showed the young people he understood this instinctively. It meant a huge amount the local community and those who run the centre that someone came to ask how it was all going. Too often when gun and gang crime gets reported the perception is that the area is some sort of no-go ghetto. The truth is, like in Old Moat, the local community is as horrified and shocked as the rest of us that such an incident should happen nearby.
That’s one of the reasons why centres like this are so important, a place where young people can make sense of events happening around them.
But Old Moat Outreach isn’t just about ‘keeping ‘em off the streets’. Especially in terms of the relationships the staff have with the kids, the true long-term value the facility is far more. As one of the confident, eloquent young women we met, 15 year old Elyse Joyce, told us: ‘I don’t know what we’d do if this wasn’t here.’
As was evident from the ambitious and articulate young people there, youth projects provide much-needed guidance, support as well as security, raising the aspirations and expectations of those who use them. Their value isn’t always appreciated. Surely this is what we mean when we talk about being ‘tough on the causes of crime’ and ‘unlocking potential’.
I was pleased that as Secretary of State for Justice, Straw made clear the government’s commitment to expanding projects like Old Moat’s. Yes, tackling crime and tough, coordinated action against gangs are crucial, but so too is providing young people with the confidence, skills and trusted relationships to broaden their horizons and pursue their dreams.
However, what the Old Moat Project needs right now is greater long-term certainty in its funding. And that’s what I and the local councillors, Andrew Fender and Jeff Smith, involved with it will seek to secure. If we want to expand projects like this then we need a funding arrangement that provides longer-term security.
I look forward to many more centres like this across south Manchester. I would be very pleased if that is the difference the Labour government and Labour council can make.
Elyse wants to be a midwife. There’s no reason why she can’t be. And helping young people like her achieve their potential is the point of all those mail merges and stuffed envelopes, after all.
Lucy Powell is Labour parliamentary candidate for Manchester Withington