Damilola Taylor 23rd Memorial Fundraiser

On 27 November 2000 a young boy had finished studying in Peckham Library and was on his way home. He never arrived. He was discovered in a stairwell bleeding to death. He was 10 year old and his name was Damilola Taylor. Damilola's death became national news. The Police investigation was initially ineffective but eventually, after several trials and false starts, two brothers, only a little older than Damilola were convicted for his manslaughter.

Richard Taylor, Damilola's father and his late wife, Gloria founded the Damilola Taylor Trust to try and make sure that some good came from their loss. Over more than 20 years the Trust has worked so hard to bring hope to disadvantaged young people who have lost hope.

In the first ten years the Trust implemented two major programmes: Extended Medical Degree Programme (EMDP), created in 2002 in conjunction with Kings College Medical School. The EMDP programme provides 25 funded places each year to give students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds opportunity to study medicine. Now in its 21 year EMDP has produced GPs and Junior Doctors for the NHS.

Spirit of London awards (Sola) was an awards ceremony that recognised young people across London for their achievements in the arts, media, campaigning and education. Sola, which was staged for four years 2009-2012 inspired over 20,000 young Londoners on virtues of making the right decision in life and the social benefits of being productive citizens.

From a conference we held in 2015 on combating knife crime and radicalisation, we found that low achievement, unequal access to opportunities and inadequate support precipitates a vicious circle of social isolation and a pathway to a life of crime and gangs for YP. For YP in inner-cities of the country, the transition from formal education to the world of work is not automatic. So since 2016, we have been delivering career pathway programmes (CPP), through which we support YP by providing them with pathways to meaningful careers away from crime. Through our CPPs: in accountancy and business; medicine and the health sciences; Work in the City, we have supported 350 young people improved their employability skills, connect to jobs and have access to economic opportunities required for productive participation in society.

In addition, we launched the Damilola Taylor Memorial Lectures, an advocacy activity in 2016, delivered it in 2017 as well as in 2018 to put the issues of knife crime and its devastating impact on the life chances of young inner-city youths on the public agenda. Our aim was to influence policy makers to enact better policies for protecting the youth. In 2020 we established the Damilola Taylor Youth Board, comprising of 8 young people under 27 years to represent the needs and ideas of YP in programme design at the Trust. Realising that YP were beginning to go off the rails at a younger and younger age, we adapted the CPP that we delivered successfully to 17-24 year olds for delivery to 14 to 15 year old pupils. We partnered with two schools -one in Peckham and the other in Crystal Palace. Despite many difficulties during lockdown, we ran the programme concurrently with the academic year for three years from 2020 to 2022, when the funding ended. We worked with 140 pupils who had been identified as hard to reach/engage with and looked to stimulate them through mentoring and collaborative workshops into professional career pathways. Participants attended interactive issue-based workshops once a week for 12 weeks. The Career Pathway Programmes for Schools (CPPFS) included group mentoring activities, tours of business organisations such as Shell and Norton Rose Fulbright, as well as participation in social activities designed to develop social/creative skills of the students. We have learnt a lot and are now developing the programme as a package to be available to more schools.

Although we are recovering from the pandemic, the nation now faces the worst cost of living crisis since the 1950s, thanks to the recent war in the East, which has disrupted the global energy market. There is no denying that in the UK young people are being disproportionally affected. We are deeply concerned about the impact the crisis is having on the young people that we work with across the board. Like all charities, DTT relies on the generosity of the public donating money to support us so we can continue our work. Our services bridge important gaps and provide opportunities for young people to develop wider social, personal and self-management skills required for productive participation and integration into society.

We hope that at a time that the cost-of-living crisis means that the costs of our operations will be increasing significantly, we will continue to have access to funding to be able to deliver and develop our programmes in response to the changing needs of beneficiaries.

Do you want to join us in making a difference on this 23rd memorial fundraising campaign? We are raising money in aid of DAMILOLA TAYLOR TRUST and every donation will help. Thank you in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to us.