Time to Listen: Reframing the narrative around young people and violence
Too often, campaigns aimed at 'tackling' youth violence focus on changing young people - asking them to behave differently, make better choices, or simply "do better". But what if we shifted the lens? What if, instead of asking children and young people to change, we asked services, systems and society to listen?
Our Time to Listen campaign is born out of that very question. It challenges the negative stereotypes surrounding young people involved in violence and crime and how these assumptions can become a barrier to accessing the support they need - especially when many are children who've experienced harm and trauma.
We've seen campaigns in the past that unfairly place the responsibility - and even blame - on young people. One example is the government's misguided initiative that printed poetry on chicken boxes, implying that avoiding violence is simply a matter of personal choice. While these strategies may be well-intentioned, they often miss the mark. They focus on what is happening, rather than why it's happening. Instead of addressing - or funding solutions for - the systemic and societal issues that drive violence in communities, they reduce complex problems to individual decisions.
Time to Listen flips that narrative. It asks how do stereotypes prevent young people from accessing support? and what does it mean to truly listen to their experiences?
From the beginning, we knew this campaign had to be informed by the young Londoners themselves.
We held a workshop with young Londoners who've accessed our services and support. We provided them a space where they shared personal experiences of being stereotyped - how it made them feel and what they wished others understood. We asked them questions like what's a common misconception people have about you? Have you ever felt judged or misunderstood? and what would you say to those assumptions?
Together, we created a series of 'You Say - I Say' statements - powerful responses that confronted stereotypes head-on. These statements became the foundation of our campaign film.
Using the insights from the workshop, we developed a script that blended lived experience with what we know from our work working alongside young people. We also involved our wider team, who contributed their own 'They Say - We See' statements, adding perspective from those working directly with some of the most vulnerable and at-risk children and young people in London.
The resulting film encourages viewers to look beyond the idea of violence as a choice and instead invites them to reframe their perspective - seeing it through the lens of children and young people in London.
Many young Londoners grow up in environments shaped by poverty, inequality, social injustices including racism and misogyny. These pressures build slowly, like water behind a dam. Without the right support, the weight becomes too much. Cracks begin to form. Eventually, the dam breaks - pushing some young people into cycles of violence and exploitation. What may appear to be a personal choice is often the result of systemic failures and a lack of options.
With the right support, young people can break free from harmful cycles, overcome challenges and build positive, fulfilling lives. But too often, that support never comes - because they are labelled, judged and treated as perpetrators before they are ever seen as children.
Time to Listen is more than a campaign - it's a call to action. It's about shifting responsibility away from young people and onto the systems and attitudes that fail them. It's about recognising trauma, not just behaviour. But most importantly it's about listening.
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