Preventing Prison
In the industrial area of Neepsend, Sheffield, lies Rutland Hall, an
old printing mill and former squat house used as a regular safe haven
for the city's heroin addicts. It's not a glamorous recent history
for one of Sheffield's iconic buildings by any stretch, but Rutland
Hall has now been refurbished and re-purposed, as an education centre
for youngsters who have been expelled from mainstream education. It
is here that Brian Wreakes and Hanif Mohammed run In2Change, a
charity that uses education to dissuade vulnerable people from a life
of crime.
The building smells strongly of fresh paint, on the walls are framed pictures and newspaper cuttings detailing the social and industrious history of the building, other walls display photos and accolades for In2Change – of which there are many. In the middle of the downstairs hall there is a pool table, in use when I arrive by a few of the young boys who use this service; they are polite and courteous to me, if ever so slightly guarded, for it's clear that these young people have found a place at In2Change where they belong, this is their place and I'm the visiting outsider.
These kids, I'm told, come from some of the city's most deprived areas, from places rife with drugs, gangs, and other such crime. It's these kids that are in danger of ending up in the prison system, “and that's what we've got to try and prevent,” says Brian, who founded In2Change in 2006. It was while working as a resettlement manager in prison that Brian met Hanif, the charity's assistant director, who was serving a ten year prison sentence for manslaughter.
Bantering away like friends in a pub, it's clear that the two have a close relationship with a lot of respect for one another, and it's this well-oiled dynamic that makes In2Change such a success, “everyone plays a part, everyone's got their own little skills,” Hanif tells me. With a diverse team of other ex-offenders, In2Change is able to tap into the lives of the kids it exists to help by relaying the real consequences of crime, “everybody has got an appropriate position and everything they depict or say is a re-enactment of their own lives, based on their own experiences,” says Hanif.
The charity has worked tirelessly to build partnerships across the city and beyond, from working with police, to schools, to prison and probation services, “it's the entire cycle that we're using,” Hanif says, “we do a whole host of things and we do it from grass root level all the way to the top, and all the way that's about educating people about crime and raising awareness,” he adds.
It's this education that is the linchpin of what they do here at In2Change, using an alternative approach to assist underprivileged young people in gaining valuable qualifications, qualifications that some schools or local services aren't equipped to deliver. A similar organisation, Sheffield Inclusion Centre, from which In2Change get most of their referrals, is one such local service, “that tells you everything you need to know, they themselves [Sheffield Inclusion Centre] are not adequately equipped to deal with some of the kids that we work with,” Hanif says.
While mainstream educational establishments do the best they can, Hanif tells me, they aren't always successful at engaging these young people, “the reality is they're out of touch with what's going on with these kids,” he says, “that's why we're so effective at working with them, because we understand their mindsets,” he adds.
Sadly, for children and young people living in deprived areas, they are likely to become a product of their environment, “the company you keep is often what you become,” Hanif says, “there's nobody who's a leading role model in these deprived communities,” he continues. This is why there's a real danger that these youngsters will end up following a life of crime, which is exactly what Brian and Hanif are trying to stop, “our vision is to nip it in the bud and take these kids from that wrong path and divert them on to the right path,” says Hanif.
But Hanif believes that there is a significant gap in the mainstream education system and these troubled youngsters are falling into it, “it's a one size fits all kind of policy,” he says, “the education, the curriculum, the syllabus, it's all one dimensional, it's made for one kind of set person,” he continues. Mainstream education, sadly, offers middle class aspirations for middle class people and, for those who come from areas where drugs and criminal activity is the norm, no allowances are being made to better engage with pupils whose aspirations do not involve a university education.
And it's not just middle class aspirations that are being forced on these young people either, “there's also a question of tolerance,” Hanif says. Where a school won't tolerate bad behaviour, “it's that instant knee-jerk reaction – you misbehave, you're gone,” he continues, which is where this issue becomes a real catch 22, “education's the key and that's the one thing they need, but that's the one thing you're taking away from them,” Hanif explains.
Mainstream education is not the only thing that is failing to make a difference though, other organisations that try to bridge the gap are also unsuccessful, “you get a lot of people working with kids, but a lot of them it's disjointed and it's not structured,” says Hanif, “you get youth clubs on the street corners, it's admirable – volunteers giving their time – but it's not as productive because all you're doing is putting a plaster on a huge wound,” he continues.
For Hanif, it's not enough for these young people to merely spend a few hours in an alternative environment, “the problem is they're still going back to them same external factors, they're still exposed and subjected to violence, drugs, the rest of it,” he says. This is why education is not a priority for these young people, “they come from these areas where it's just survival, they're just trying to get by,” Hanif says.
Picking up where the schools and other services leave off by delivering tailored interventions around criminality, In2Change uses the experiences of it's employees to give these kids an education and environment they'll respond to and engage with, tackling hard hitting issues such as knife and gang crime, drugs education, and the consequences of drink driving; while also delivering vocational and apprenticeship qualifications to build skills for life.
For Hanif and Brian, trying to encourage these young people to see beyond their current circumstances and engage with education isn't easy, “it's a big ask,” Hanif says, but they're proud to say that they're succeeding in their vision. In the last three years, over 100 kids who were previously expelled from school had gained a qualification at In2Change in their vocational skills programme, many of whom went on to college and apprenticeships. And not prison.
