When the rioting is over, what practical things can we do to make a difference?

[CinnabarRed]

I'm white, middle class and live very comfortably in the home counties. I work in a well paid job in the city, I went to university. I have had every opportunity life has to offer, and I have been incredibly lucky.

I have no idea what it's like to be a young black man growing up in Tottenham, or Peckham, or any of the places affected by the riots. I have no idea how it feels to grow up with no prospects, or role models, or viable alternatives.

I pay my taxes, but it doesn't feel enough. It isn't enough.

What, who and where can I/should I help? Volunteer? Support? Is it best to give of my expertise or to mentor or to help at schools? Financial assistance? Get my city firm involved in a project somewhere?

Vote for the socialist party

I phoned my local Homestart centre this afternoon and they are sending me out a volunteer pack today. There's a course starting next month I can go on. Very very pleased and hope I can make a difference to a family and DC .

There wasn't a true socialist candidate in my (very conservative) constituency. Wouldn't have mattered if there were - the Tories stayed in with a huge majority.

I can't do much about that - but I can do something as an individual. Which is what this thread is about.

I want to sign up for this too. I live inbetween Bristol and Swindon and would really like to help.

Here is the Homestart page. They are asking for volunteers. I don't mind giving up a few hours.

Thank you for starting this thread, what a lovely lovely community spirit

It's also like a manifesto for The Big Society.

There is also the more immediate problem of those families who have lost their homes and have nothing left but the clothes in which they escaped the burning buildings.

That's very true lionheart - do you know who I could contact to offer assistance there? I don't know where to start.

I found this

But only helpful for local londoners, really.

Also heard that the Red Cross will be giving out vouchers so people can get clothes etc from their shops. Maybe they would be a sensible place to donate to?

The Red Cross have emergency response vans that are stocked with clothes, nappies, milk and other basic supplies and they are always on call in situations like this. However if you make a donation it does go into the general Red Cross pot, you cannot specify it for this particular incident.

The Salvation Army are also a good charity and they will accept donations of clothes and basics that they will hand out to people.

Is there not a fund available that we can donate to for those people who have lost everything? Could anyone find out?

Good links there shrinkingnora and RhubarbO.

Oooh I'm so excited you guys are contacting HomeStart!

They really don't publicise themselves enough (Social Services keep them quiet - all to themselves).

I remember asking for help from Homestart when I was going through a rough patch but they didn't have enough volunteers at the time. This is something I should have done a long time ago.

This thread makes me happy!

The only thing that is really gonna change any of this is to encourage more personal responsibility in these communities.

That means punishing crime, not excusing it.

It also means making sure work pays. That means lower withdrawal rates for benefits, and higher taxes to pay for it. And it means trimming back the welfare state so that it is a safety net and not a hammock.

Oh Rhubarb I would say bless you if I was religious.
x

MrsBethel you're bringing down the tone of this neighbourhood.

Tinker round the edges if it makes you feel better.

The only thing that is going to really improve these kids lives is if their parents get jobs. And thats not going to happen under the current system, where they lose 90p in benefits for each £1 they earn.

So MrsBethel - as per the actual question in OP, is your answer "nothing", we've got to leave it all to the authorities?

CinnabarRed: I think any form of volunteering would be a good thing. Most of the suggestions here are very family oriented, but anything that has people coming together or improving the environment would help. Are their youth clubs who need leaders - or (as you have a city background) fund raisers? Also are there local projects to improve your shared environment - improving repairing community centres, care of open spaces, tree planting etc. And see if there are any summer activity schemes for local youth (especially any aimed at teens who might otherwise hang around with not enough to do) - they usually need fund raising too.

You could look at Catch 22 who run youth inclusion schemes across the UK:

"Our programmes help young people to develop the confidence and skills to grasp solutions that are right for them; from getting back into school or into training, choosing to stay out of crime, finding a safe place to live and helping them with the skills needed to live independently after leaving care or custody.

We believe in the potential of every young person, given the chance.

We also encourage young people to give something back to their local communities."

www.catch-22.org.uk/

apparently the rioters aren't necessary unemployed- - ta ,lifeguard,charity worker, postman all in court today.

I really like some of these suggestions and think that the idea of actually DOING something is great but I also kind of think there needs to be a cultural shift in our society towards men and boys (bear with me - I am not a bleeding heart liberal but this has bothered me for a while). A lot has been made about unmarried mothers etc being responsible for the latest breakdown in society but the rate of single parents is now 24 percent compared to the 22 percent it was when labour came to power. Divorce figures in the last few years have lowered so I just cannot see how that adds up. I have no idea about how to deal with the young men and women responsible for the violence this week but I do have some feelings about the next generations.

My boys are six and two and already they are bombarded by graphic sexuality, violence and the influence of dehumanising games. I have banned a lot of it in the house but it still gets in through thier friends and in popular culture. In the same way that many mothers of girls despise the clothes that make them look like tarts, I hate the ones with little terror slogans, or heavy metal style or that tries to encourage them to look like mini gangsters. I feel like a lot is made of protecting girls childhoods and trying to protect them from the pervasive attitude of the media but what about young men? In the same way that a little girl watching x-rated shite like rihanna will absorb some pretty uncomfortable messages about herself sexually, a boy will get pretty warped ideas about what a woman is for. We are so afraid of social services and unseen threats that we dont allow our boys freedom to hurt themselves, take risks and have the adventures that set the scene for the finding of themselves as men. Instead a lot of kids stay at home playing ever increasinly realistic and violent computer games that dehumanise them - I feel like anyone who has ever seen the extremely popular grand theft auto cannot fail to draw uncomfortable comparisons with what was seen this week. The media and the way it manipulates childrens perceptions needs to be looked at. As well, as most mothers of boys know, without lots of physical activity they become restless, frustrated and with all that testorone lurking about, aggrressive - mix the two together and you have a recipe for disaster.

Another thing that bothers me is the amount of responsibility we place on our child to make their own decisions. For example my mum works in a nursery and a government body has just sent out new rules dictating that children must serve themselves and choose what they want to eat. I get that having the freedom to choose means they might feel more comfortable with they eat but conversly it isnt a childs job to moderate their own diet and lifestyle and I can tell you now when left to choose the kids eat practically nowt. The responsibility should be ours as adults and allowing a child to think they can have what they want when they want with no discomfort is the way to make looters.

I suppose in a very long and convoluted way what I am trying to say is that we need to look at lots of factors - what is happening with our own children first being one of them. Encouraging our husbands to volunteer seems to me a good way forwards (and removing all the ridiculous barriers to them doing so!) and then really looking at the messages children and young people get today is a big one and putting pressure on mps to change the media and bring some kind of limits back into the messages children of both sexes are bombarded with should be a bit of a priority.

Prettyfly that's really interesting, you are talking a lot about the detail about the kind of things that will set the scene for a child to go astray (for want of a better word). Volunteering with an organisation that has contact with families that just don't get the detail of parenting (ie age appropriate games and videos, decent food, boundaries), is a good way to make a step towards preventing social meltdown.

The fact is there are some parents that get the detail, and some parents that don't. They don't rate it as important, yet the good parents know that it is absolutely the thing that will make their children succeed or fail in life.

Modelling good parenting to those who need it, or mentoring children who have lost their way in a world without boundaries, is a great thing to do to prevent all this happening. I wish the goverment would be a bit more appreciative of the organisations that run these projects.

The sad thing is that It took the mass destruction of property for people to suddenly be interested why because it affects them. Which is why it is so easy for people to call for them to be shot burned etc (on other threads). But there has been a destruction going on quietly in our society, youths have been murdered, stabbed and all those problems were largely ignored especially if the are black or working class or male. There is something wrong right now in a way there has not been and there won't be any simple fix.

While there will be a few opportunistic people who were just in it for fun or greed despite having a good life we are fooling ourselves if we think those types made up the majority of the rioters

It is also not a race thing either although it may have originally started so that it spread to predominately white areas shows this problem is bigger than that.