People are forever asking me what I do, what youth work is and how we at Urban Hope go about it. Normally I can answer fairly confidently but every so often, particularly after a week that's gone a bit wrong, I get myself into a state trying to answer. It's then that I go away and have a think about what it is we do, which normally ends in a discussion at Urban Hope HQ.

This week the answer we arrived at was 're-shape the world'. 

At Urban Hope we look at our community and dare to imagine it could be whole, healthy and peaceful, and then we go about re-shaping our reality so that it can be.   

We imagine a world where the girl who wants to be a doctor but doesn't believe it's possible, does, and then we tell her we believe in her, provide her with a space to revise in and find someone to give her sound career advice. 

We imagine a world where the local park is safe for young people and their families, and then we write letters, make phone calls and host meetings until the families we work with are happy to spend a day enjoying each other in it. 

We imagine a world where the boy who thinks dealing drugs is his only option- doesn't, and then we  tell him we believe in him, teach him to cook, show him how to fix his bike, take him to the countryside and help him to imagine a future with many options.

Little by little we change the shape of the world we inhabit, and we encourage young people to do the same, by inviting them to imagine, through art, music and discussion, and sometimes we even imagine on their behalf- And then, we re-shape the world.

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Islington's Family Information Service has published details of activities taking place over the school holidays .... link here

Here at Urban Hope, we will continue to run all our regular activities + we will be doing lots of extra stuff for children and young people who find themselves with nothing to do

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At Urban Hope we try to give young people the opportunity to experience new things. One of the ways we do this is by organising activity weekends in the country. Last weekend we took 8 young women and one amazing young leader to Hindleap Warren in East Grinsted, to celebrate and end the Beautiful course

Over the last weekend we saw young women overcome challenges, face fears, persevere until they achieved and have loads of fun. Again and again I am amazed at the growth of confidence and self-belief that can occur in such a short amount of time. As well as the change of perspective spending time in another setting can offer. At the end of every residential we do, I need to sleep for hours before I can function at a reasonable level again but it has never been not totally worth it- and every young person we take away says the same.

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Fran writes…

We have a lot of young people who come into Urban Hope each week who are affected by the places they live. We hear about the high-rise, box-size, community-killing environments that so many young people grow up in, in our city.

I recently watched a 2-part program on 4OD, which was really interesting.  The program followed Kevin McCloud exploring Dharavi, India’s most densely populated slum. Dharavi is described as “one of the most extreme urban environments on earth” but this place could show us how our western city planners and architects have gone so wrong.

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Joy writes…

At Urban Hope we have the privilege of travelling with young people as they journey through adolescence. Sometimes those journeys arerelatively smooth and our role is to help them to navigate small bumps in the road. Other times the journey to adulthood takes young people into deep, dark caverns of seemingly endless pain.

For those young people hope is so important, but it’s easy to lose sight of it when confronted with their stories of despair. How do we keep travelling with young people, when there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel?

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To Celebrate Valentines day, some of our Urban Hopefuls volunteered to cook a delicious meal at our sister project - the Manna. The Manna is a project which seeks to serve and support homeless and marginalised people. 

They served over 90 people with a three course meal which they had spent the afternoon cooking using skills they had learned at our 'food-skills workshops' - it went down well!

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Ben writes ....

I wanted to share this song with you ... it's one of a number of songs which keeps me focused here at Urban Hope. I've often been frustrated when attending meetings discussing the latest local youth strategy or policy, there often seems to be lots and lots of debate, rules and restrictions .... perhaps these words can call us back to remember what's at the heart of all our work with young people.

"A Time To Love"
(feat. India.Arie)

We have time for racism
We have time for criticism
Held bondage by our ism's
When will there be a time to love

We make time to debate religion
Passing bills and building prisons
For building fortunes and passing judgements
When will there be a time to love

At this point in history we have a choice to make
To either walk a path of love
Or be crippled by our hate

We have time to cause pollution
We have time to cause confusion
All wrapped up in our own illusions
When will there be a time to love

We make time to conquer nations
Time for oil exploration
Hatred, violence and terrorism
When will there be a time to love

At this moment in time
We have a choice to make
Father God is watching
While we cause mother earth so much pain
It's such a shame

Not enough money for
The young, the old and the poor
But for war there is always more
When will there be a time to love

We make time for paying taxes
Or paying bills and buying status
But we will pay the consequences
If we don't make the time to love

Now's the time to pay attention
Yes now is the time... to love...
A time love... Love...
A time to Love
Please, please won't you tell me
When will there be a time to love...

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 Ben writes ….

Last October Caitlin Moran wrote a superb article reflecting on the experience of living in poverty. We blogged her article as we thought it reflected the experience of so many people we know here in Islington. Caitlin wrote another experiential reflection published in the Sunday Times yesterday, which I hope, will help people to engage with some of the issues faced by those who depend of state benefits.

Cutting to the heart of the welfare state

‘What’s it like, being raised on benefits? Well, mainly, you’re scared’

Unlike most of the people voting on the proposed £18 billion cuts to the benefits budget – as it shuttles between the Commons and the Lords – I was raised on benefits. Disability benefits, collected every Tuesday from the post office, in a shuffling queue of limpers, coughers and people with their coat hoods pulled right up.

Perhaps if you drove past the queue, you would presume the ones hiding their faces were doing it because they were on the fiddle – “playing the books”. In reality, they were the scared kids with mental problems on Incapacity Benefit,whom you’d see trying three times, and ultimately failing, to get on a bus.Good luck with getting them on a Restart scheme, you would think. Good luck with trying to funnel that terror into a cardboard hat in McDonald’s.

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For over 7 years now Urban Hopefuls have been creating short films about them, and their reactions to the world around them. Some which have been part of the 'London Children's Film Festival'. We have now created an UrbanHopefuls channel on YouTube, which is a great platform to celebrate the young peoples voice's and talent's. it will be a channel for their past cinematic achievements and hopefully many more to come in the future.

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A couple of weeks ago we held the first session of the Beautfiul@urbanhope course this year. We have 10 stunning young women and the amazing Hannah Jean as our resident image consultant.

Hannah, who founded ‘Find myStyle’ image consultancy, also leads ‘Diva-licious’ an image empowerment project.  ‘Diva-licious’ goes to schools and pupil referral units to work with girls around the issues of self-esteem and self-image, using her skills in fashion and styling.

We’re so excited to be working with Hannah, because it is always great to work with people who share your vision.

The aim for Beautiful@urbanhope is to enable young women to recognise that they are beautiful, valuable and have a contribution to make in the world.

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