Award to give young people something to aspire to – do you know a selfless child?

Just Enough has run 1,290 talks in Southwark on hate crime, county lines, anti-radicalisation and knife crime.

It has also staged 900 in Lambeth, 720 in Wandsworth and 300 in both Croydon and Lewisham.

Just Enough founder Phil Knight is setting up an award for selfless children, to give them something to aspire to, at a time when knife crime has been soaring.

He said: “Kids tell us they carry knives for protection. It is not driven by the media – teenagers don’t watch the 10 o’clock news. They watch YouTube and focus on America gangs, who carry knives and wear masks. So they think that’s cool.

“They respond to people they think are cool or funny.

“What they need is aspiration.”

Phil, talking to a school, above, is seeing optimistic signs.

“South London is pulling together,” he said. “Three years ago, I went to a town hall meeting and could see marijuana growing on a roof across the street, out of the window. They were using few resources to fight a huge problem. There was apathy. But that is not good enough – and it is good to see things happening.

“There is a community of mothers who think no one understands them – they want children to have aspirations to earn money; and they want local bobbies to talk to kids. They say that protection has gone.

“Pupils might not win awards all the time, but teachers can recognise them if they have done something amazing. But a lot of the time, kids think ‘Am I worth it?’ They do not feel valued.”

Phil’s conviction about what works is drawn from his own life. “I hated school. I bunked off and hid in the bushes. It still seems ironic that I run this organisation.

“I preferred playing drums and did a BTEC course in that and turned it into a career.”

One night he was playing at Claridges when film star Emma Thompson started singing with the band. She asked him for a drink afterwards. “I was thinking ‘Great – you’ll see me on the cover of Hello soon’.

“It turned out she wanted me to teach a Moldovan girl, Svetlana, the drums. She had had a horrific time – raped and beaten and working as a domestic slave when Emma found her.

“All the work I had done was with people aged over 18. But she was much younger.”

He began a record-breaking sponsored drum to raise cash for her. “After three hours I knew I was in trouble – my bum ached,” he said. “At 92 hours, I was hallucinating from sleep deprivation. I wondered off, forgetting where I was. I threw away the sticks – which I am gutted about. At the end I slept for 14 hours straight.”

Two years later, Svetlana needed more funding so he lived in a shipping container in Euston for two weeks – as happens to many refugees. He missed the riots of 2011 and only raised £250 – and came out jobless and with post-traumatic stress disorder.

But he started telling schools about it. “I would joke with pupils about cleaning the toilet while I was in there – but when I talked about trafficking, they would suddenly turn serious,” he said.

“My mantra is ‘laugh, listen and learn’. I formed a charity to talk about modern slavery in an engaging way.”

it became Just Enough. He was giving one talk two minutes away when the Manchester Arena bomb went off. One of the audience’s friend was killed. Staff were asked to a Grenfell school the day after the tragedy.

Another session was at a school where a pupil had been knocked off his bike and stabbed. “I asked how many in the class had carried knives – and 10 had,” he recalled.

Phil said: “One workshop I went to, this kid kept coming back asking what his friend should do if he gets caught in a bad situation. It was obvious he was talking about himself.

“Cavemen invented knives to defend themselves against mammoths but I don’t see many of them in South London. They just know they need knives.

“Poverty is a factor because jobs that pay are hard to get. How can they get the trainers they have seen on TV? So they aspire to be in gangs.

“I was one of the lucky ones because when I earned my first £30 I felt like a millionaire. A drank it all away on a park bench. But these days, too often we tell them what they can’t do; not what they can. Saturday jobs are just non-existent – independent shops no longer give jobs to young people where they can learn about life and where they fit in.

Do you know a primary school child aged 4-12 who deserves a new Children’s Award – and £1,000 cash – for extraordinary acts of selflessness in their community. Today is the last day for nominations.

Finalists will be announced in March before the winner is revealed in April. The winner of the award will receive a trophy and a cash prize of £1,000.

Phil said: “At Just Enough we see remarkable children every day in our workshops. They do a brilliant job of understanding matters some of the world’s biggest politicians are yet to sort out.

“We also see so many examples of children undertaking kind and generous acts – not for reward or recognition but because they want to. We want to celebrate those who have been quietly making others’ lives better and inspire others to follow in their footsteps.”

The deadline for nominations is Friday 15 February. Visit: https://www.justenoughgroup.org/childrens-award/