Steve Barnabis

0:00Hello and welcome to Happy Place with me Fern Cotton. Today a very special episode made possible by the National Lottery. I'm meeting Steve Barnabas. Sometimes you can, you know, see lots of indicators and factors into the roads that some young people might go down. Issues around mental health, how well they're doing at school, anxieties and pressures could lead young people into many different situations. And we have situations where sometimes young people feel for their own safety they need to carry a knife, as an example. There's no kind of one-size-fits-all kind of situation. You know, you have to really look at young people as individuals and have a real understanding of what they might be dealing with or going through.

0:45Steve is the founder of Project Zero, an East London organisation aiming to see a year where no young person dies as a result of knife crime. Whilst working with local communities to provide safe spaces for young men and women, Steve and his family have twice suffered life-changing events that reaffirmed Project Zero's mission. In 2004, his second cousin Robert was killed as a result of a knife attack. And in 2019, he lost another second cousin, Alex, in the same way. Since then, Steve has continued to be a force for good in the local community, working to address youth inclusion, employment and engagement.

1:33He's even had his own mural put up in Walthamstow, which you must Google. It is a powerful image, or perhaps if you're in the area, walk past it and do a big thumbs up to Steve. Steve has an incredible commitment to his mission and his community, which will no doubt be on show at the coronation big lunch he and Project Zero are throwing over the bank holiday weekend. His is just one of many communities all over the UK that are getting together to celebrate the upcoming coronation with a bit of help from National Lottery players. National Lottery players raise over£30 million a week to support good causes all over the UK, which includes funding that has gone towards the running of the Coronation Big Lunch.

2:20The Big Lunch brings millions of people together annually to boost community spirit whilst encouraging neighbours to share friendship, food and a bit of fun. Her Majesty the Queen Consort has been patron of the Big Lunch since 2013 and over the coronation, folks across the country will be hosting a special one-off coronation Big Lunch. Right, here it is. Meet Steve. This is the show.

3:09Hey Steve, welcome to Happy Place. It's so lovely to meet you. Good afternoon. Hey, I'd love to hear a bit about Project Zero, what you're doing, this brilliant initiative. Can you tell me a bit about it? Yeah, so Project Zero is all about engaging young people in positive activities. We want to promote social inclusion and reduce antisocial and offending behaviour. But Project Zero is the headline and it's kind of like wanting to see a year where there's been zero deaths of a young person because of knife crime. Like I said, that's the headline. But when you come here, when you come to the centre, it's really just all about engaging young people in activities, providing them a safe place for them to come and be, mingle with their friends, discover things about themselves, learn new skills, help them overcome any kind of barriers that they may have at home, at school, or being out and about in the community.

4:02But just generally engaging with young people and helping them to be happy. And you're actually at The Hub now. Now, you've got your own studio space there that looks amazing. Tell me about the space that you're in and what you've got to offer there. Yeah, we're based at the Outset Centre Community Youth Hub, which is in Waltham-Sow, the borough of Waltham Forest. So quite central. We've been here for the last two and a half years. And yeah, at the centre here, we've got a fantastic music recording studio. We've got a gaming lounge. We have a room called the Mac Attack Room, which is all about video editing, music production.

4:39We have a hall for live shows and performances. And we also have a multimedia room and even an on-site cafe. So we provide a wide range of engaging activities for our young people. There's something for everybody here, basically. Oh, it's so brilliant, Steve. I want to hear much more about Project Zero in a moment. But first of all, can you tell me how you're involved in the Coronation Big Lunch this year? So since 2018, I've actually been involved in big lunches within the community. I was involved in something called the Big Walk back then and ended up doing our big lunch and bringing the community together.

5:19And last year we were part of the Queen's Jubilee and we had our own big lunch in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. and so this year obviously with the king's coronation we decided a great time and opportunity to do a big lunch around that event so yeah our young people's really enjoyed the big lunches that we've provided in the past it's a great way of them not only the young people that use the center come in here and enjoying themselves like they always do when they come and have our events here but also it's a time that we can open up the doors and the wider community can come in as well and take part in and see what we do here and see all the activities if they haven't done so before.

6:01Yeah, so it's a lovely opportunity for community. I'd love to know how your big Jubilee lunch went. Was that a nerve wracking prospect to organise that, to get people there? I know you had live music and food and a bouncy castle. How was that? Yeah, no, it's always fun. It's always the days leading up to the event itself. If I had hair, I would have lost it, but I can't lose it twice. So, but yeah, there's always, you know, organizing any kind of event, there's always stress and making sure all the T's across, all the I's are dotted. Everybody comes in on time. Everything is delivered. You do as much preparation as you can beforehand, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

6:40So, yeah, but it was a lot of fun last year. We had our local councillors came down. We had our community police officers. Like I said, we have young people performing. We had food. We had all the red, white and blue flags and everything like that flying. It was really exciting. We have a programme called Youth Champions. So when a young person turns 14, they become more than just a young person coming along to the youth centre. We encourage them to be like peer mentors and they're real advocates for Project Zero and the work that we do. So they actually have a task of working in organising and preparing and setting up for the event as well.

7:16So it's a real young person led kind of activity. Yeah, it's beautiful. So let's go right back to the start. because I'd love to know how you started Project Zero, why you started it, because it's built into something so important and vital in your local community. And, you know, you've got a big responsibility in running it. Why did you start it and how? So I've actually been working and engaging with young people for 30 plus years myself. And unfortunately, in 2004, I lost a cousin through knife crime. So for me, working in the youth offending team environment, working with social services, even working as a residential social worker, and even a number of years working with young people that were involved in gangs in the States.

8:01When my cousin lost his life through knife crime, it was kind of like a traumatic experience. And it was kind of like I was on both ends of the shoe. While I was working with and engaging with young people that had been perpetrators of knife crime and been involved in the criminal justice system. Now our family became victims of this event. So it was kind of a bit of mixed emotions. But there was a need for young people to be doing something a bit more positive for themselves and positive for their lives. I strongly believe that youth centres, youth workers, activities that run at centres like this were vital to engaging young people, keeping them off the streets.

8:45And unfortunately, we were going through the period of the banks crashing at the time and austerity and everything being shut down. So when this happened, I thought, you know what, there's a real need. The young person who committed the crime was a 16-year-old young person, excluded from school, kind of no real ambitions, no real goals within his life. And it kind of highlighted the situation where there really needed to be going back to the roots of old style youth centres and youth workers engaging with young people directly within the community. So that was kind of in 2004. But unfortunately, in 2019, I lost a second cousin through through knife crime.

9:26So even over that 15 year period, the issues were still very real, still very alive, and engagement programmes and working with young people was still very much needed. Yeah, I mean, it's such vital work that you're doing. And I'm so sorry for your losses, because that's an incredibly difficult, challenging thing to go through especially as like you say you know you were working with young offenders you were working with people forging connection having empathy for and helping people that were involved in knife crime yet also on the receiving end of that violence and losing family members that must have been just an incredibly complicated thing to go through emotionally for you yeah it was it was it was kind of a funny and difficult period all at the same time yeah I had to go through a bit quite a bit of soul searching but it kind of through that process I think it did highlight the need well it highlighted two things how easily a young person could either be a victim or a perpetrator of such a crime you know sometimes you can you know see lots of indicators and factors into the roads that some young people might go down issues around mental health how well they're doing at school anxieties and pressures could lead young people into many different situations and we have situations where sometimes young people feel for their own safety they need to carry a knife as an example there's no kind of one size fits all kind of situation you know you have to really look at young people as individuals and have a real understanding of what they might be dealing with or going through their home life their circumstances mental health etc etc Yeah, I mean, we know that this cycle of violence is still ongoing, hence why you're deeply passionate about doing this work, continuing this work.

11:19Why do you think that cycle of violence is so strong and how do we even begin to break it? Well, you know, I've been working with young people for 30 plus years. There are a number of different factors that's changed over the years. So the access to information on your mobile phones and the internet is a big factor in terms of discovering things that you might not have had easy access to. So young people can explore a wide range of topics that before they might not have seen before. I think some of those things sometimes can cause more anxieties. the ability to engage with people on a in a face-to-face way and be able to express your feelings to somebody that's in the same room of you that's kind of dimensionless a little bit with you know the use of mobile phones or or everything on a screen type of thing and I think those kind of things and those issues can create anxieties the ability to to to say how you're feeling to somebody in a bit more of a face-to-face way and that can then lead to issues around conflict or anger management issues or stress or outbursts or you know that type of thing.

12:40I think it's really important to hear you explain that because sometimes if we feel we don't know enough about these cycles of violence that we're all aware of and it's not just in London this happens well all over the world but in all different towns and cities around the UK I think if you don't know enough about it you can just assume these people are bad they're doing bad things I don't want to know about it but what you're doing is exploring the issues the home life the anxiety the mental problems that these young people face and you're helping them get out of that cycle which is so important and like you said at the beginning of this chat you've got huge goals you want to see a whole year where nobody dies from knife violence.

13:24And that is an amazing goal, a huge goal to have. How have you faced people telling you that that's not possible? So actually, I mean, I must admit, when I kind of was looking at the, you know, what we're going to call this project and the theming and the promotion of it, I thought that was going to be something that come up quite a lot. You know, I would go into a meeting, do a presentation and say, yeah we're project zero we want to see a year where there's been zero deaths of knife crime and everybody looking at me and thinking no that's not going to happen that's not going to be possible but i didn't actually get that reaction people might have been thinking it but they didn't actually say it to my face but um i guess that for me is um if we all have an ambition if we all have a drive to achieve that goal you know if we are able to engage with young people if we achieve it and there's no death of a young person in a year where there's been of knife crime that'd be amazing but I think just the the ambition and engaging with young people with that vision in mind you know should create some kind of effect that where we can protect young people and looking at their needs.

14:35Yeah and community is is such a huge part of this it's what you're cultivating it's what you're encouraging for people to not be displaced for people to feel like they belong and part of something. How crucial is that sense of community for young people and breaking this cycle of violence? Oh, it's extremely important. One of my favourite sayings, and the people here, the staff team that works here, probably are sick and tired of me saying it. It takes a village to raise a child. I say it at every possible opportunity. It's not just down to the parents. It's not just down to the police. It's not just down to our counsellors.

15:14every single, doesn't matter whether you've got children or not, it doesn't matter. We all need to be responsible with regards to affecting change within our community. It's all our responsibilities. You know, we should be able to see a young person on the street and say, hey, what are you doing? Where are you supposed to be? What are you doing? I know there's safeguarding issues and things that we all have to be very mindful of, but we have to look at young people within our communities as all of our responsibilities. So with this community that you've created, and it's very celebrated in your local area, how do you feel when you see people in your local area coming together and forging this community in a really positive way?

15:58I mean, that must make you feel euphoric. Yeah, I mean, I'm blessed to be in Waltham Forest as a borough, where it's a very diverse community and they are very good at coming together and and supporting projects and organizations like ourselves we get a lot of donations of items that we use for our young people gaming somebody left a gaming console an xbox outside the the center the other day and said wrapped it up lovely in a in a nice bag with a bow on it and they didn't leave their name and address we couldn't call them back to say thank you but said please utilize this for your young people yeah you know during covid period we had donations and items and and the community really came out and supported us when we first started and was going through that year of lockdown and and and difficulties and before we you know got a steady flow of funding yeah donations came in so yeah it's It's a really beautiful thing when you see community, the wider community, supporting what we do here.

17:02Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, so much so that there's a gigantic bloody mural of you, Steve, in Walthamstow. I was Googling it earlier. It's massive. And you're wearing an aubergine suit. You're looking slick. You're looking powerful. It must have been a real moment to see that, to stand in front of this ginormous mural of yourself. yeah I always say because funny enough it's on the way when I travel home and I always say I feel so sorry for the people that live on that street but they have to see that every day that they go home I was thinking oh my goodness can you imagine but actually that yeah that has actually got a bit of a story to it um so if you were to look at that picture on the end of it there's a kind of a frame at the beginning of another picture.

17:50And that's a young person, CJ, who has actually lost his life through a gun incident in Newham a number of years ago. So there's actually, there was due to be three pictures. His mum was very much involved in trying to get support and help for CJ when he was a young person growing up. And CJ used to come along to our previous centre and attend a number of programmes and projects. So yes, while I'm there, centre stage, is actually a bit more of a wider story to the mural and why that came about. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's extremely poignant. And it's a lovely reminder, I guess, for everybody about that sense of community, but also as to what can be lost.

18:32And it's really important that we remember this and that we realise what's going on so that we can keep continuing to forge community and helping young people out there. I mean, I'm sure that over the 30 years that you've been working in this area, but specifically working for creating Project Zero and putting your time, passion and energy into it. I'm sure that you've encountered so many positive stories, moments that you really feel like what you're doing is is making monumental change. Are there any particular stories that stand out that will really stay with you forever? Well, first off, actually, I should mention that our team of youth engagement workers are quite a relatively young team as well.

19:16They're all people that live within Waltham Forest. Some of them have come through what we call shared lived experience. They can tell you about situations that they've been involved in and they use those experiences to work and engage with the young people that attend here at the centre. So it kind of creates a kind of big brother, big sister vibe, atmosphere, rather than they're going into any kind of governmental building or centre, if you like. and some of the young people I've known from since they were like coming up to me knee high sort of thing and they come now and they are working here as youth engagement workers bringing their experiences and the relationships that we've had over the years to engaging with the young people that we have here now.

20:06I feel very old sometimes when I've seen some of those young people come back and they've got their own children and I'm thinking okay you know I'm thinking maybe I've been doing this for a bit too long but yeah I think seeing some young people in terms of where they've been the struggles that they were having beforehand the road that they were on and how much that's turned around and changed to where they are now whether they've been in relationships that they're working some of them are doing further education I think those kind of wins when you know how far removed those goals were at the beginning to to you know the fact that they're achieving them now I think when I see that then that kind of gives a good feeling.

20:53Yeah I'm imagining Steve that you're um you know not only are you incredibly skilled in this area and obviously just have a natural ability to talk to young people work with young people and understand these issues but you must be generally a hopeful person because this is you know it's serious territory and it's and it's game changing it's life changing it's life saving for many people so do you do you find yourself feeling hopeful naturally yeah um yeah I do actually I can give a bit of example of um how we look at things here so we at the beginning um well actually no it started uh just in the summer last year it's a year-long program so you know we're running it all the way up until the summer this year we was basically doing an anti-knife campaign but our anti-knife campaign was with a bit of a difference it wasn't your usual imagery of knives with blood on it saying put the knives down and don't carry a knife it's dangerous to carry it how far young people have had that message drummed into them they do know that they know the dangers of it they know the consequences of it.

21:57So our anti-knife campaign was called Choosing Life. And the idea of it was for young people to think about their goals, their ambitions, the things that they want to achieve, whether it's their careers, whatever is it that they want to achieve as they're growing up and moving into adulthood. And then for us to kind of think about the barriers that might be stopping them from achieving those things. So we had what we call Choosing Life ambassadors. So we had Omar Beckles, for example, from Leighton Orient Football Ground. We had this young rapper, local rapper, his name is Kitch. They come in and they tell and share their stories about where they were, the things that they've done to get to where they are now in their profession, in their field, how they overcome barriers and overcame hurdles to be where they are now.

22:49So they had real life, local, what we call heroes, if you like, telling their stories to our young people. And so it was a kind of a spin on the normal anti-knife campaign type of thing. So rather the negativity or the dangers of don't do this and kind of telling and lecturing young people, don't, don't, don't, don't, no, no, no. Here's what you can have. Here's what you can do. Here's a programme over here. Here's an activity over here. Here's something that you can get involved in. Here's something that you can engage in and telling that story as well. Yeah, it's a brilliant way of doing it.

23:23It's amazing. And again, it just emphasises that sense of community that, you know, everybody in your area wants this, in every area wants this, wants this sort of, these aspirational stories to be told and for people to feel like that they have a chance of dreaming big and achieving their goals and moving in a more positive direction. It's so wonderful. obviously we talked a little bit about your jubilee lunch that you held thanks to national lottery players project zero is also holding a coronation big lunch so you've got you've got the stress all over again steve but you've also can't lose any more hair you've also got this wonderful opportunity for community for celebration bringing people together what have you got planned this time round?

24:11So kind of following the same kind of pattern where we have live performances. So our young people are working on some new pieces of music that they're going to perform to our other young people. There will always be the traditional bit of food. Last year, we did have actually a royal visit from, we actually had two royal visits. So our Jubilee celebration last year, we had Leo the lion and Lenny the prince and a princess that come along So you can imagine their mascots and the smaller children loved that and had their pictures taken with those. So a bit of that. And yeah, probably something, a different activity I'm sure that we'll have going throughout the day that will get young people happy and involved in something.

24:58Yeah, King Charles and Queen Camilla actually visited us here at the centre in October as well last year. Yeah, I want to know about this because I know that you met at a special Big Jubilee lunch event that was held at the Oval. How did that come about? So you met the Queen Consort there and how did the visit transpire? I guess through my work in terms of being a volunteer and over the years of community work, we was um awarded with a royal volunteer award which was presented by queen camilla at the oval cricket grounds um in i want to say it's june it was june june last year and while we was there at that event i took a number of young people alongside myself and one of our young people was bold enough and said you should come along to our center you should come and see what we do and and check us out and sure enough they did they sure enough they did so it's actually um a kind of surreal experience because what happened was it was like the Monday when we got notification that they wanted to come and visit us and then it was the Wednesday when the queen I think it was the Wednesday when the queen actually passed away wow so we thought well this is a change in circumstances so the chances are it's probably not going to happen we went through a period of time the funeral took place and it was not long after the funeral that they got back in touch and said no they want to come we were shocked and we were surprised our young people was ecstatic and and the visit took place and they came and checked us out wow so so talk me through this the king and the queen consort arrive at project zero how are you feeling what did you get up to whilst you're in their present Saturday at work?

26:48Yeah. Well, so because it was a normal school day, we had to get permissions from a lot of our young people because our provision is in the main, an out-of-school provision. So we had to get a lot of permissions from the various schools that our young people attend for the young people to come along. So a lot of our youth champions came. We have a group that does Corsica Ducey's. They do singing, dancing and drama here at the centre on a Saturday. they brought their young people and they did a musical piece singing and dancing performance and we also work with Bancroft's primary school which is a school right next door to us they funny enough had a visit from the Duchess of Cornwall at the time Camilla a couple of years ago so they already had experiences of a royal visit but they're a local school primary school that we work with and their years four five and six came along so we had a lot of young people a lot of flag waving.

27:42They spent quite a bit of time with us actually and they met all our key members of staff. They met a strong team of female youth engagement workers who deliver a wide range of female tailored engagement programs and they heard about how we worked with issues around domestic violence, involvement in gangs, how we engage with disadvantaged young people from a wide range of various backgrounds. And then we also had a number of our partners coming in. So Prince's Trust based at Wolf and Forest College, Sparked Alive, the Think Foundation, other partner organisations that we work with. I think for me, it was important that they were there and part of the event because we are nothing by ourselves.

28:29Project Zero is nothing, you know, just one organisation with just our workers. I don't believe in reinventing the wheel. So I think partnership working is very crucial and important. So it was also a great opportunity for our partners to come along to the event and celebrate in the achievements and meet the Royal Family. And what did that mean to your team? It must have been a really amazing moment to be able to talk about the work that you're doing and your goals. Yeah, you know, I think you could really, from the young people's perspective, you could see them really, their chest rise up to feel like, oh, you know, look, we're actually quite important.

29:12You know, where our centre is, is in central Walthamstow, is not necessarily on a main road, is a little bit tucked away. But for the King and Queen to consider us as important enough to come and visit and see what we do here, I think it was a great experience. for our staff who's gone through, some of them has gone through a lot as well as the young people. And I think also it was quite a bit of recognition for a lot of the community workers that we do work with as well. Yeah. Oh, it's so amazing. Honestly, just hearing you talk about what you've created. And I think really, again, placing emphasis on that sense of community is so important, especially with knowing how many people feel particularly lonely.

29:58I think, you know, we all know that's a big problem globally. Again, I'm sure. But, you know, I probably am more up to date with the sort of statistics here and knowing that in the UK that that is still a huge problem, that so many people feel lonely that they don't have that sense of community or people that they can rely on. It's incredibly important what you're doing. What are your plans for the future, Steve, with Project Zero? What's next on the horizon for you? so it's funny actually we had um this morning um a meeting with um some consultants with regards to um our mental health services you know our some of our well not just i was going to say our young people but just not just our young people everybody's going through it where we've had brexit covid cost of living war in ukraine all of these different things the anxiety levels are are high, let's put it that way.

30:53So we are kind of looking at all our inclusion services, mental health, wellbeing, the activities that we deliver, whether it's sports, stuff around fashion, all the engagement activities, but making sure that mental health and wellbeing and support is available through all of those activities in some way, shape or form, and how we develop case management work with our young people. But the challenge is actually to try and do it in such a way where young people can come in and get that support and feel that they are receiving that help without it feeling like it's a therapeutic intervention kind of thing.

31:36You know, like they're not going to a doctor's surgery to receive help. They're coming to and speaking to people that can listen and direct them in, signpost them. in a bit more of a natural holistic way. Yeah, it's brilliant. And it's really, really important. Because again, we know that the fallout from everything that you've just mentioned there has created even more mental health issues and problems. And that's certainly something that I'm deeply interested in as well and looking for ways to combat that or different resources for people to tap into so that they stand a better chance of feeling mentally okay.

32:11It's desperately important. So just like how the National Lottery players have helped you bring people together for your big lunches and the one that you've got up and coming, what advice would you give for other people out there who might want to do the same thing that have not thrown any sort of party in their community or brought people together? What advice and tips can you give? Well, actually, I mean, there is a lot of resources and tools online that you can actually, if you were to type in, I think the King's Coronation Big Lunch, there are a lot of tools online. But I think the thing that we learned in terms of pulling it together and going through the process was getting maybe key members of the community involved from a very early stage.

32:59You know, if everybody takes a little bit, pulls it all together, then you have something that's a little bit more successful. and we're doing that actually with this project where we've got our program that's just happening on the streets out there then they're actually growing sunflowers and they've been doing that with our people their projects and trying to get solar panels on the roof it's called power they've got their projects they're coming along and they're bringing their input but yeah i think just getting people or members of the community from a very early stage i think it was last week where Ainsley Harrett was leading in the big knock, just going around knocking on people's doors and saying, hey, we're doing this thing next week.

33:42You want to get involved and get in their details and finding out what they can bring and what they can offer to the event and to bringing the communities together. And I guess the other key thing is not to be afraid. You know, sometimes you can be scared of rejection and thinking, oh, my goodness, I can go and knock on this person's door and I'm thinking who the hell are you but uh if you're if you're not afraid to do that and ready and a bit more broader shoulders then yeah just going out and just giving it a go um and trying to get people involved in that way yeah it's amazing well you're already you're living proof that doing it is is you know a perfect example of forging beautiful community for positive change and um and it's so brilliant that you're seeing that in your local area and and with such brilliant big goals I'm really looking forward to seeing you know how you grow what you're doing and how you can reach more people and inspire others to do similar setups initiatives or just bringing communities together in their local areas because I think the more that people feel they're included and part of something you know the better the less the less negative outcomes we'll see all around so it's um it's really inspiring to hear you speak Steve and it's it's brilliant work that you're doing with Project Zero and it's been an absolute pleasure to learn more about it here and good luck with your big lunch.

35:02Thank you very much. Thank you. Steve, I just want to say a ginormous thank you for taking the time to chat. The work that you're doing is just incredible, massively inspiring and so needed. We are all completely indebted to you, mate. Thanks to National Lottery players, communities all over the UK are getting together to celebrate the coronation. Every time you play the National Lottery on app or in store, you help support amazing projects like the Big Lunch. It's amazing what the National Lottery does for people. I can't wait to see what delicious spread you put on there, Steve. Hopefully a quiche is involved and you lovely people listening this year that are putting on a big lunch.

35:44Maybe you can show me some of your joyful photos if you're celebrating we're at happy place official on instagram a massive thanks again to steve to the producer anushka tate at rethink audio and to you brilliant people you're lovely

36:16Thank you.