‘Estate kids are so alienated that even other children can’t figure them out.’
Introduction by Barry Hugill
Children are telling the government's advisers what problems they face on Britain's most troubled estates and the adults are taking note.
A group of children aged between 11 and 15 from Children's Express sat down last month with the Social Exclusion Unit, which advises the Cabinet, to discuss life on housing estates, in particular those thought to be 'at the edge' hotbeds of crime, drugs and hopelessness.
Children's Express, an out-of-school project for children with an interest in journalism, sent the children out to interview other kids living on notorious estates.
Their findings were presented to the unit which will produce a report next month on council estates. The unit's experts were so impressed with the children's contribution that they have asked them to 'do some further work for us'.
The Government created the Social Exclusion Unit last December to analyse why certain groups were on the outside and to make recommendations for change to Ministers.
Moira Wallace, the unit head, said the meeting was a great chance for us to hear what young people have to say about where they live and what they want. Too often policies that affect children are invented without anyone ever asking them'.
Children's Express, which was set up three years ago, has bureaux in London and Newcastle and is about to go national with funding from the Department of Education and Employment.
The children aged between eight and 18, explore the big issues of the day from their own perspective. They have produced features for this newspaper in recent months on the pressure on children to be thin and, most recently, the growth of a 'worry culture' especially amongst girls.
While children are often the victims of the environment in which they live, they can also add to the problems surrounding them. Walk round any estate and it is clear that for many residents young people are the problem - bored, alienated, congregating on corners, drinking when not engaging in vandalism, joyriding and promiscuous sex.
The urban riots of recent years have always involved young people, often in confrontation with the police.
On the pages that follow are edited extracts of the evidence presented to the unit. Much of the material is of a personal and sensitive nature so the names of the interviewees have been changed.
The exercise tells us much about life on estates, but it is more than just reportage. The 'reporters' were themselves shocked at what they found.
London editor Caroline Abomeli said 'It was the worst drama I have ever heard. Like something on the Jerry Springer Show. 'These kids don't care about anything because they've been on the estate all their lives, so don't know any different'.
