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Charity cuts contributed to riots, says Batmanghelidjh 3

Finance | Gareth Jones | 9 Aug 2011

Youth services were “at breaking point” even before cuts to their funding and were unable to provide the support needed to prevent this week’s riots, according to Camila Batmanghelidjh.

Speaking to civilsociety.co.uk, the founder of youth charities the Place2Be and Kids Company (pictured) said young people need to feel as if they “belong somewhere” where positive behaviour matters.

“If organisations that kids can belong to have been diminished through the cuts and there’s no secure base or a healthy group for kids to belong to then they’ve got nothing to lose.

“The services were at breaking point anyhow, and to be honest with you, most of them didn’t have sufficient resources to deal with these types of kids in the first place.

“Lots of the youth provisions had become very dangerous because they were too understaffed and the kids’ destructive and savage behaviour set the agenda.

“The counter-action coming from these agencies couldn’t be strong enough because it was too under-resourced.”

She added that the government should lay down a vision for disenfranchised young people which should be wide-ranging but should include additional resources charities.

In one example, Haringey Council in north London reportedly shut down eight of its 13 youth centres in response to funding constraints.

Important role for youth charities

Elsewhere, Seb Elsworth, director of strategy at Acevo, said he didn’t want to jump to any conclusions about “any obvious causal link” between the cuts and the rioting, but said that the events highlight the importance of protecting the work of charities supporting young people.

He said: “I think it really points to the important role that those charities will play in engaging young people and supporting them and rebuilding those communities. It’s what the sector has a really strong track record of doing.”

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, said the events were shocking and that the time for reflection would come at a later stage, but added: “It is heartening to see people coming together spontaneously to rebuild their communities and support those affected. Voluntary action of this sort shows the amazing resilience of our communities.”

Nick Hurd, minister for civil society, also praised the efforts of volunteers in helping to clean up the streets.

"We all have a debt of gratitude to the clean up volunteers who represent the real face of Britain. They got together this morning peacefully determined to show that their communities will not be defeated by mindless violence.

“Their actions meant people who went to bed in fear woke up feeling part of a community that cares – that is the power of people doing things for each other."

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Directory: Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) | National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
Who's Who: Nick Hurd | Sir Stuart Etherington | Seb Elsworth | Camila Batmanghelidjh