EXCLUSIVE: West Country anti-knife crime campaigner calls for change to minimum wage laws
Serena Wiebe met with the Prime Minister in Downing Street last week
A young Bristol woman who has become a campaigner against knife crime says minimum wage laws need to change, to discourage young people from going into crime.
Serena Wiebe, who is 20, works at the boxing gym turned youth centre Empire Fighting Chance and was invited to Downing Street last week to take part in the first of a new annual summit against knife crime, organised by the government.
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio to reflect on that event one week on, Serena said she feels positive about the future but would like to see several things change, including the laws around minimum wage.
She said: "A lot of young people do similar jobs to adults but they get paid less, just because of their age.
"That is probably another reason why a lot of young people are out on the streets doing things that they're not supposed to do.
"If you're put in a position where you have to provide for a family, which is the case for a lot of the young people that come through our gym, of course they're going to be on the streets doing things that they're not supposed to do.
"Of course they're going to be exploited."
As of April 2024 minimum wage rules state that people aged 21 and over must be paid at least £11.44 per hour, but that drops to £8.60 for those aged 18 to 20 and only £6.40 for under 18s and apprentices.
That means that if a person is 21 but doing an apprenticeship, they are still only entitled to £6.40 per hour.
We have asked the government for a response.
What's being done already?
Earlier this summer, in May, we took an in depth look at how people across the West Country are working to reduce knife crime.
One of those doing the work is Tyrell Jarrett who mentors people caught up in the criminal justice system, through his group BX Cellence.
"As a young teen you aspire to have the things other people have, without the resources, so you recognise what a resource looks like," he said.
"Whether that's people, whether that's drugs, whether that's using your physicality...robberies, robberies with weapons, all sorts of things to tell you the truth. Everything financially motivated, which rightfully or wrongfully made sense at the time."
Tyrell told us young people feeling undervalued can often lead to them taking the wrong path.
"Most of the young people I meet...enjoyed school, done well, good communicators...but quickly became disenfranchised with how they felt misplaced," he said.
"No one wanted anything to do with St Pauls (when he was growing up). Now you've got (a) coffee shop on every corner.
"It's value placement. If I don't feel a level of self worth in myself, in the area, why should I feel for someone else's self worth? Why should I feel for someone else's safety?"
Next year a new youth centre is due to open in South Bristol named 224, which its hoped will encourage young people off the streets.
It is being created near the Imperial Retail Park between Hartcliffe and Knowle West at a cost of £11 million and will be run by the charity Youth Moves.
In the meantime another trying to reduce violence and the impact of it is Leanne Reynolds.
Representing the Daniel Baird Foundation, she works to install bleed control kits across the West Country and trains people on how to use them.
In May our charity Cash for Kids partnered with her and the Foundation, to fund the installation of 10 on streets across Bristol, which you can read about here.