As part of our Women and Girls month in October, we reflect on our trip to the Howard League Conference at Oxford University, where our researcher Hannah Hammond, from the University of Birmingham, and Reahana Gordon, a coach and youth mentor from our specialist partners Fight 4 Change, represented Levelling the Playing Field at a roundtable session.
Reahana and her brother Davarel (who also attends Fight 4 Change boxing club) offered their personal experiences and insights on the roundtable theme: experiences and perceptions of the police by young people from overrepresented ethnicities in the justice system.
Reahana and Davarel grew up a stone’s throw from Fight 4 Change’s boxing gym in Lambeth, South London, an ethnically diverse area with high levels of crime and social deprivation.
LIVED EXPERIENCE
Both have lived experience of the sort of issues that typically bring ethnically diverse young people into contact with the police and the justice system, such as stop and search. They were able to share their views and opinions with an academic audience.
“We were able to give people at the Howard League Conference insight into how young people feel about their relationship with the police and express the reality,” says Reahana. “Young people don’t feel very positive or trustful at all about the police and have genuine reasons to be upset.
“Young people these days aren’t as tolerant of certain things, but our generation is a lot more hands-on and willing to do the dirty work to get results. That’s why Dav has applied to be a police officer. To achieve change within a system, you sometimes have to become part of the system.”
Reahana and Davarel were also able to articulate how important Fight 4 Change has been in engaging them in the positive activity of boxing, as well as providing local role models, mentors, education opportunities and, in Reahana’s case, employment as a youth leader and mentor. Both are also involved in the Lambeth Young Advisors group (run by Fight 4 Change) which uses youth voices to bring social, economic and political change to the community.
COMMUNITY SPORT PARTNERS
Fight 4 Change is just one example from the Levelling the Playing Field network of how community sport organisations can support ethnically diverse children and young people who – statistics show – are less likely to be physically active and are over-represented in the Criminal Justice System.
The 40 community sport partners across the LtPF network all use sport as a vehicle to support young people’s desistance from crime. The project recognises that young people’s perceptions of the police can be a barrier to them developing strong social bonds and social capital, and that community sports clubs can play a role in shaping these perceptions.
Researcher Hannah, who is leading the evaluation of Levelling the Playing Field, said: “It was really important that the audience at the Howard League Conference heard real-life stories about how police are perceived by young people in ethnically diverse communities. It lifted their gaze from reports and academic studies to listen to powerful first-hand accounts about an issue that has a high profile in the justice system at the moment.”
Reahana, Davarel and Hannah were joined by Alliance of Sport Chief Operating Officer, Justin Coleman, PC Ali Hunt from Derbyshire Police and Michele Glassup, ROTL and Resettlement Coordinator at HMYOI Feltham to talk about how community sport organisations can link with the Criminal Justice System to bring better outcomes for young people.
'A SAFE PLACE'
“For young people at risk or already involved with the justice system, sport can be a ‘safe place’ where they can engage in something positive, find support and pursue healthy ambitions,” said Hannah. “The key is to get community sports organisations and statutory bodies, such as probation and the Youth Justice Service, talking to each other and forming partnerships. “We’ve seen Levelling the Playing Field succeed in that process in places like Newport, where their unique (and award-winning) community/statutory partnership model has received praise and recognition.
“The Howard League Conference was also a good forum to achieve this cross-sector communication. Several people approached Reahana and Davarel afterwards to ask about referring young people from statutory services into Fight 4 Change.
“We now hope to achieve further insights and inroads at other events like the Include Summit in Birmingham next May.”