Published: 08 December 2011
by PAVAN AMARA

ONE of Camden’s longest-running youth charities is overhauling the way it works after drawing new inspiration from the streets of Harlem, New York.

Paul Perkins, chief executive of The Winch, in Swiss Cottage, which was founded in 1972, said a visit to New York earlier in the year had changed the mentality of its youth workers.

He said: “45 per cent of children in Camden live in poverty. One third don’t own a book.

“Another statistic – youth workers will only ever make a difference to one in 10 children they work with, and we want to find a way to make a difference to every single one of them.

“Over there [in Harlem] they have a lot of the same problems that we have here – gangs, deprivation, crime – but the projects there are so creative and have been so successful. We wanted to learn from them.”

Now the charity, which works with four to 24-year-olds at its Winchester Road base, is launching a new scheme called “the Promise Academy” – and organisers are calling for philanthropists and generous entrepreneurs to help make it work.

The Winch wants to buy the building it currently rents, and then hopes to redecorate it and change the way it works. It’s a £3.7 million project.

“We can say we work with around 1,200 young people a year at the moment,” said Mr Perkins.

“But if we’re talking about how many lives we really change, the number is far smaller.

“At the moment the way we are working is disjointed. That’s a flaw with many youth organisations.

The kids who come to us at four years old won’t stay with us more than a few years, and so the people we have at 24 are not people we’ve worked with all the way through.

“That approach doesn’t offer the full support and stability that we can see ourselves giving.”

He added: “What the Promise Academy is about is working with the children who really need it – those most vulnerable who need support the most.

“We want to start working with them from minus nine months, by putting them in a baby college while they’re still in the womb.

“That’ll involve getting their parents to talk to them in the womb, eat healthily, give them tips on ways they could nurture them even further when they’re born.

“Then they would be working with us as soon as they come into the world all the way up to the age of 24.

“We would cushion them all the way through that journey.

“That would help the most at-risk children in our society. Those who may otherwise turn to gangs, substance abuse or violence would turn to us instead, to be nurtured and have their potential really looked after.”

He added: “We also want to concentrate in north Camden. It’s only three wards, but if we want to change lives we have to really zone in.”

Last Thursday’s launch event for Promise Academy was attended by Councillor Sally Gimson, Councillor Sarah Hayward, Camden police superintendent Raj Kohli and BBC news anchor Mishal Husain.

Young people helped by The Winch showed off their entrepreneurial talents downstairs with the K&N Café, which was run by Quintin Kynaston students Kaltrina Mehmeti, 17, Nura Abdul Razak, 16, and Daniella Okezie, 16.

Matt Nation, 24, spoke about how The Winch helped him start his clothing business, Provide.

Mr Nation is about to set up shop in Birmingham’s City Centre after a property developer invested £100,000 in the idea.

He said: “The Winch helped me with my business plan. They mentored me and made me believe I could do it.

“To me it’s the start. If it goes well in Birmingham, then I will open up nationwide – in other cities in the north and back in my own hometown, too.”

Cllr Hayward said: “As a local authority we’re facing cuts of £100 million. We’ve always had a very good relationship with our voluntary sector, but some organisations need to rethink their future because the money is not there. We can help out in other ways still, but not financially.

“Paul understands the needs of the local community [in a way that] a local authority can’t comprehend because he works on the ground.

“It’s about time a public sector body like the local authority started really listening to The Winch.”

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