The Jamal Edwards Delve (JE Delve) youth centres in Acton are providing young people in Ealing with a safe space to develop their personal and professional skills.
There are three centres which offer open-access and weekly drop-in sessions, and the young people can access support gaining employment, work experience or even to just have a chat with a youth worker.
Yara Mirdad, the CEO & Senior Youth Worker at JE Delve said: “The centres are a safe space for young people in the area, and we have seen a rise in numbers especially on the back of lockdown.
There is a growing need for these centres, the way schooling is changing and becoming more academic is pushing some students to feel pushed out. There’s nowhere for these young people to go.
Austerity killed youth work and so we have established ourselves by filling a gap in the youth provision in the area.”
The sessions are often tailored to the age range and needs of the young people and some examples of the sessions offered are art, music and filmmaking.
Mirdad later said: “We work with quite a wide age range of young people starting from the ages of 11 to 21 and up to 25 if the young people have special or extra needs.
The way you speak to an 11-year-old is different from the way you speak to a 21-year-old, so we try and have something in place to meet everyone’s needs.”
The youth centres were founded by former Acton resident, Jamal Edwards MBE. It was in these same youth centres that he first developed his interest in video and music production.
Edwards has since founded SBTV, an £8m music business and launched the careers of many successful musicians such as Ed Sheeran and Stormzy. Edwards aims to give the young people in Acton the opportunity to develop their skills, just as he once had.
Edwards said: “I’ve got a kid who wants to be a mechanic; we hooked him up with an apprenticeship with Mercedes Benz. Nike donated tickets to a football match. Rihanna’s nail technician did a workshop at one of the clubs. Ed Sheeran came down. Hopefully it has a knock-on effect, but in terms of activities we plan, I always try and link it to what the kids want to do and what I have access to. I want to give them as many different experiences as I can.”
Edwards is using his industry connections to help inspire and equip young people with the confidence and skills they need to fulfil their potential.
Edwards also said: “I want to give the kids different experiences and listen to what they want. The biggest thing I want to give young people is make them know their potential.”
To find out more about the work at JE Delve you can see their website here
Written by Shannon O'Neill
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