The Burngreave teenagers keeping others out of gangs
At the end of our week-long investigation, we're hearing from the young people determined to shake off the stigma of growing up in a deprived postcode
It’s claimed a project started in Burngreave to keep kids out of gangs could be introduced elsewhere to help tackle violent crime across the country.
Big Brother Burngreave was launched last year as part of a national project piloted in Sheffield.
It’s run by teenagers and brings together boys of all different ages and backgrounds so they can do something positive with their time.
'They judge you by your postcode before they even know you' - Sahal Barre
“We have people coming from Woodseats, Shiregreen, Sharrow, Rotherham... so all different areas,” says Sahal Barre, 18, one of the project leaders.
“It’s showing young boys it’s actually not only about going out to do drugs or go out to sit on the streets. You can come and do something that’s active.
“We have some friends that normally used to go out to smoke, drink... but now they have that time to do something different.”
The project runs various activities, sports and other meet-ups and helps boys learn new skills as well as introducing them to groups of people from other races and backgrounds.
“It’s not always the same faces,” says sixth form student Abdul-Malik, one of the other project leaders.
“But there is always around 50 (people) who come. Which is a very good number because we have all those people who are not on the streets.
“They’ve got something structured to do, they can just message their friends and say ‘it’s Big Brother Burngreave on Saturday’ instead of saying ‘what are you doing on Saturday?’ and having no direction, which is when ideas of other stuff start coming in.”
Big Brother Burngreave was set up through Sport Relief as part of a national pilot which has been running in Sheffield and Norwich. The idea was to provide the initial funding and training to help community groups set up their own projects, and then allow local people to continue running them for themselves.
'It's showing young boys it's not only about going out to do drugs or sit on the streets' - Sahal Barre
Sahal and Abdul believe this is the key to its success, rather than having a stranger come into the community trying to engage with people.
It’s a simple concept which the boys think could benefit other areas.
“We know it’s effective because we started small, and now it’s big,” says Sahal.
“In other areas we would love to do something like this, because everyone deserves something good in their life."
The pair are also keen to break the stigma of growing up in an area like Burngreave, where the headlines are mostly negative.
“There is the negative parts, but that’s from the few and it’s being represented as the whole community,” says Abdul-Malik.
“They judge you by your postcode before they even know you," agrees Sahal.
"But we have people coming here from Woodseats and Rotherham... so they actually want to come to Burngreave to do something positive. Usually people would not want to come to Burngreave because they have that fear of the area."