"I would like to turn on the TV and not hear that somebody has been shot, stabbed or fatally wounded, because at the end of the day none of that is necessary.
"Everybody thinks it's cool you know, yeah it's all good when you're with a gang and trying to prove a point to your peers and everything, but at the end of the day people don't realise the after effect of you taking somebody's life and the after effect on the family of the victim … there's a lot of people that are in prisons that have to live with that. At the time they think they can deal with it because it's a hype thing." This is what DJ, Phoebe One said when we went to interview her about Peace on the Streets.
Phoebe One is a Choice FM presenter and ambassador for the station's Peace on the Streets initiative that targets young people aged 13 to 25. It's a project trying to reduce gun and knife crime by running workshops in schools and the community and supporting music events in London. The campaign has recently produced a film for national television and cinema.
We asked Phoebe about how she got involved in the campaign. "Peace on the Streets was trying to get some peace out there, stop the arguing, the fighting, the gun crime, the knife crime and everything. And they actually asked me 'would you be the face of the Peace on the Streets situation' and I was like 'yeah, cool, I don't mind getting involved.'"
When we talked to her, Phoebe was cool and funny. She pointed out to us that "what a lot of young people don't realise is sometimes people expect bad behaviour from you. So what you have to do is switch your whole game up". Initiatives such as this can help young people think twice before pulling a trigger or stabbing somebody. "To be egged on is real, real easy. You know, you have to really think about certain situations that you end up in or get yourself dragged into and that's what this whole thing is about, to sort of avoid those situations."
Listening to young people is a crucial part of the campaign. This is because it's all about the lives and deaths of young people and how they intend to put it right. "We are definitely up for ideas because at the end of the day we have to listen to young people because we may be overlooking something that is so simple."
This is obviously a big issue that will take a long time to solve, and this campaign is trying as hard as it can to solve the dilemmas that young people find difficult to work out for themselves. Therefore we need people like Phoebe One who are determined to help our youth today and set good examples because we need great role models to look up to. Like us, Phoebe wants to see a change.
About this article
This article is part of a series on gun crime in London. It was produced by Andrew Dixon, 13, Ghizlan Akerbousse, 15, Cherish Shonowo, 15, Jordan Daley, 13, Jamie Craig, 13 and Zainab Asad, 14. It is a podcast on the Choice FM website.
