Hold It Down (HID) was created in 2006 as part of a wider suite of interventions aimed at reducing the rising issues of Gun, Gang and knife enabled crime commissioned by Team Hackney – Hackney’s Strategic Partnership.
Of the commissioned projects, HID was one of the most successful as it was the main engagement tool. Being young people led and managed affords HID the credibility to have honest discussions with their peers on the level and in places where conventional support/advice has never been able to reach, especially on estates.
HID was designed to offer young people alternative hooks to involvement with gun, gang and knife crime through performance arts - whether it be singing, rapping or dance. We also give young people a chance to get exposure to event management and production. This is all underpinned by our street based community engagement strategy with young people.
HID was initially incubated within the Strategic Priorities Unit of Hackney Council for Voluntary Service and remained there until becoming an independent organisation in 2008. HID is a registered limited company by guarantee and a registered charity.
HID is currently funded by the Tudor Trust.
HID is currently delivering Event Management training for NEET’s (Not in Employment, Education or Training) in Hackney, as part of our two years funded programme from the BIG Lottery. The programme to date has seen good success in terms of outcomes with a pass rate of over 80% and with 15% of students entering employment.
Over the past 2 years HID has been re-establishing links at a local level to engage young Black males who are directly involved with gun, gang and knife crime in Hackney. We have been working with NEET young people to become better prepared to enter the workforce, through events management and team leading accredited courses.
HID has had to temporarily re-focus our core activity of street based engagement using the medium of localised youth designed, produced and managed events due to financial constraints. We have concentrated on developing our track record of delivering quality programmes and additional funding streams.
HID’s aims and ambitions have not changed over the last 2 years that we have received funding, what it has done is allowed HID the become a more stable and developed organisation.
Hold It Down brings its own understanding of the needs and expectations of this client group, shaped through 4 and half years of experience, to service providers to help them shape future services for better fit. Hold It Down’s activities will primarily be outreach, engagement and direct youth work where a service gap has been identified through running events and projects that appeal to young people that are tightly linked to these existing services. Additionally Hold It Down provides soft skill set training and support to clients to better prepare them for participating in formal education and employment activities increasing their chance of success. This will enable an increased number of young people, with a focus on young Black men involved with the criminal justice system to access realistic opportunities and sustain their participation to achieve recognised goals as well as build their own abilities in terms of confidence, awareness of gang issues and violent behaviour, social skills and pre-employment skill sets.
HID’s approach has been to utilise young people from disengaged and never heard communities that have the respect of young people and understand how to appropriately communicate with each other and have a shared cultural understanding to generate the most interest. Hold It Down is a best practice example of this, employing staff under the age of 25, and developing a pool of outreach and events staff between 16 and 25 who are able to effectively promote events and activities to young people. HID’s director and sessional staff have been the team that has delivered the successful outreach and events service of our previous project. For the past 4 and half years HID has developed extensive links with the media (Sky and Channel 4) as well as radio. CHOICE FM and BBC Radio London, we are also linked to the Youth Offending Team, Police, Youth service and are one of the Hackney 2012 Olympic and Paralympic “hubs” to ensure that we able to support and advocate for young people.