Sherifa asks some young people at a youth centre what changes they would like to see.
One of the answers was pretty interesting, and at its heart scrutinises the effect of government cuts to community facilities and the communities themselves
“…there needs to be more opportunities. Like this area, the other day me and my mates were planning to go out. And we didn’t have no ideas, because there’s nothing. They were either too far away or…
YP: You just end up …
YP: Yeah, and that’s probably why people commit… do all these stuff, because there’s nothing to do. Except…. like you have to earn money to pay for the other things to do. They’re either expensive or you have to pay for travel and that to… so there needs to be more opportunities, and more people need to listen.
YP: That’s what I mean like, everything round here, it costs money and some people can’t afford it. So they go out doing,.. like they go out getting in trouble to afford what they want to do. It’s like, even like a football club. Like the second cheapest football club is like £300 a year. Like most parents can’t afford to pay that considering if they have multiple kids. So they would go out, get into trouble, to pay to do what they want to do, which leads to them getting arrested and all stuff like that.
YP: And even to rent a pitch it costs like £100 an hour. It’s like we’re just wanting to play football.
YP: And you’ve got to put a deposit down as well. It’s like £200 deposit plus £100 to rent it. It’s like we can’t afford that. So we just go out. Like go out street breaking, or even climbing into other places,
BHW: Does that really frustrate you and make you feel angry?
YP: No, it’s not, it’s like… it’s up to the people that want to… do it. If they want to charge that much, they charge that much. But people… what they don’t realise is, not everyone can afford that”
