My brother Will was murdered in Honduras when he was nineteen years old. Our family set up the William Wates Memorial Trust in 1998 in order to prevent what happened to him happening to other young people in the UK. The Trust is a grants giving charity with a mission to help the most disadvantaged young people keep away from a life of crime and violence, and fulfil their potential.
Never has our mission been so important. The recent surge in knife crime has been well documented and is deeply troubling. It has become clear that to help reduce this epidemic requires a multifaceted approach. We need to prevent students being excluded from school, we need to provide places for young people to go other than the streets and we need to provide care and support for those young people who find themselves in trouble. This is exactly what the charities that WWMT support do.
For example WWMT is currently supporting Redthread. Redthread’s expert youth workers meet young people in the Emergency Departments of London’s Major Trauma Centre hospitals. A violent incident such as a stabbing leaves the whole community reeling. Youth workers support young people to choose not to retaliate, engage with other services, or move into places of safety. They support, mentor, advise, advocate, and empower young people to access other services and organisations and develop their own personal skills and strengths. Young people who work with Redthread are much less likely to continue living violent lifestyles, making whole communities safer and healing the wounds left by violence.
Westminster House Youth Club, based in Nunhead, offer a less direct but equally important intervention. In an area beset by a range of inner-city problems, including high unemployment, crime, drugs, violence and a high incidence of underage sexual activity the club offers a safe place, a sense of community, positive activities, role models and consistent support for young people when they need it. Through their offering they give young people the confidence in their ability to rise above the low expectations placed upon them.
WMMT is also supporting Youth Adventure Trust. Youth Adventure Trust (YAT) take the hardest to reach Year 7 to 9 pupils from Swindon and the Wiltshire area on a series of adventure camps and day activities that take place over 3 years. YAT aim to help the young people they support by introducing them to outdoor adventure with a combination of outdoor residential adventure camps and day activities over a 3 school year period. Through multiple touch points the young people are given hope, confidence and skills to face their personal challenges which are often considerable. One Headmaster from Warminster said of the YAT programme:
“It turned Daniel around from a boy at risk of permanent exclusion to a boy thoroughly engaged with his schoolwork who is now a pleasure to teach”
We know that pupils excluded from school are recruited by gangs and often go on to commit crime. By preventing exclusion from school charities like YAT are keeping young people away from the gangs and the potential of violence. Once again this is an example of how the work of WWMT is preventing knife crime.
These are three very different charities with one thing in common. They each have a determination to help young people fulfil their potential and stay away from a life of crime and violence. That determination is shared by the William Wates Memorial Trust. You will be aware that in recent years many of the services that support young people in their communities have been lost. I hope this snapshot gives you a sense of just how devastating that loss is and how vital the charities we support are to the wellbeing of the communities they work in.
We are incredibly grateful to all of our supporters for enabling us to continue with our work through the funds you raise. To find out more about the myriad of inspiring charities that you help support by riding Le Loop and fundraising for WWMT, visit www.wwmt.org.
~ Rick Wates (WWMT Trustee and Chairman of Le Loop)