Funding cuts for community organisations is putting black youths at risk

Government funding cuts 'leaving black youths to die'Funding cuts for community organisations is putting black youths at risk, says independent government advisor

http://www.guardian.co.uk...tworkfront

Crucial government funding cuts are "leaving black youths to die", an independent advisor to the Home Office warned today.

Dr Derrick Campbell said financial support earmarked for community cohesion was not going to the right organisations.

His controversial comments came as police appealed for calm in Birmingham after gang violence caused two deaths in the West Midlands in just 24 hours.

All three incidents involved black youths and included the shooting dead of Dimitri Foskin, 24, in the Newtown area of Birmingham on Saturday night.

Campbell, who is chairman of the National Independent Advisory Group on Criminal Use of Firearms, told the BBC: "We have clear evidence of organisations which used to be funded and have delivered on outcomes but have suddenly not been supported.

"We have to ask the question whether there seems to be an acceptance that if another black youth is killed they are just another one that we don't have to worry about.

"Black youths within this country have been left to die. And that's a very strong statement but it's a statement that seems to be borne out through evidence about black youths who seem to be at the top of the list when it comes to our youngsters being killed."

Campbell said there was hard evidence from community groups in the Birmingham area that their level of funding was being cut - a situation that he claimed was reflected nationally.

He added: "Now we're asking very serious questions of national government and local government as to why it seems that resources that have been allocated for community cohesion and other activities have not been going to those organisations."

A Home Office spokesman told the BBC: "The government is committed to tackling gun, gang and knife crime and getting weapons off our streets.

"In July we launched the £100m youth crime action plan which sets out a comprehensive package of tough enforcement and intensive prevention measures as well as more support for parents to tackle offending and reduce reoffending."

One has to ask the question of why it is primarily black and asian youths who HAVE guns and are shooting each other?

There is a definite separating of communities here and the issues are becoming closer to the surface.

I was in Leicester on friday night (close to Birmingham) and was myself racially abused while walking the dog.

Everything goes in cycles and the backlash against perceived racism is producing more racism than this country has seen in years. The separation of communities will only serve to increase polarization.
[Edited 8/25/08 6:25am]

mdiver said:

I lived in Leicester for two years [1990-91]. Ok it was a long time ago but back then I extremely rarely heard of such verbal or physical attacks. At the time, I heard Leicester had the second largest Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi community in the country after Bradford in the north. [And I'm sorry to put everybody in the same basket but that's how they calculated.] But it was so peaceful, with no particular tensions between the various communities [incl white versus non-white].
I believe it is the media, among others, which foment those tensions.

mdiver said:

Mach said:

SUPRMAN said:

deebee said:

SUPRMAN said:

What were the "results" organizations were producing?
How effective were the organizations at producing said results?
Does the youth crime action plan seek to be more effective and the funding is being diverted from one group of organizations to another (and thus the crying by those being cut off)?

Beyond the attention-grabbing soundbite that got the media interested, those seem to be precisely the questions that underpin and inform what he's saying. I agree that it'd be a mistake to take all that he says at face value, but, at the same time, not having directly experienced the national and local government initiatives relating to gun-crime, etc, in Birmingham (I'm assuming that goes for both of us!), I feel like I have to give some credence to what the chairman of the National Independent Advisory Group on Criminal Use of Firearms is saying. Anything less smacks of an ideologically-driven knee-jerk reaction.

Since when does throwing money at social problems mean you get results?

That's funny, I was just talking about ideologically-driven knee-jerk reactions! This kind of undercuts the valid points you make in the questions above. It seems like neither he nor you (in your questions) are talking about just "throwing money" at problems, but assessing which organisations/programmes are effective, on what basis that assessment is made, and how funding can best be allocated on that basis. Unless, of course, raising those genuine, complex political questions is actually just a smokescreen for a tired old right wing agenda...