Mums United, a Sheffield charity focusing on youth education against violent crime, is now fully supporting our campaign to bring Knife Angel to Sheffield. It has been working with families of victims for many years to convince the local authorities to host the sculpture.
The statute, made of more than 100, 000 knives used for knife crimes across the country, was built to raise awareness for violent crime within communities.
The trustee of Mums United has written a letter on behalf of the charity to Sheffield City Council to advocate the campaign:
“I write on behalf of Mums United to fully endorse this campaign.
As you know, Mums United Sheffield was founded by local mothers who have been affected by the effects of knife crime in their communities, with deeply damaging and in some cases, fatal impact.
Amongst our diverse members, we have parents who have been stabbed as an attempt to intimidate us in our violence-reduction work; parents who have witnessed gang-related violence on the streets where they live; parents who have been widowed as a result of violent crime; parents with imprisoned sons after their teenagers have been lost to street gangs.
Our violence reduction outreach work, run by trained volunteer mentors is extensive. We run workshops at the weekends in community venues with children from 5-15, to raise awareness about the dangers of gangs and street crime, and in particular, the risks of carrying knives. This includes activities designed to build confidence, provide enjoyment and create new friendships, as an alternative to the temptations of gangs. Examples include archery, boxing, poetry-writing, football and self-defence.
We go into local schools to engage children in interactive workshops which help them understand the reasons kids and teenagers get into carrying knives, the risks involved and the devastating impact on the lives of young people and the people who love them. We bring in facilitators who themselves have been in prison for knife-related violence, or who are reformed gang members, to speak from bitter experience about the path they took, and practical ways to avoid the nightmarish traps they fell into.
We provide safe spaces for mothers in particular, to share their concerns and to gain mutual support in their parenting struggles. This work builds confidence and a sense of togetherness, to stand up against the cultural norms in our communities, where women and girls are often expected to quietly conform and at times collude with a culture of violence, involving knife crime.
Although we are a small charity, with very little external funding, our impact, reputation and profile in the city of Sheffield has grown rapidly. We are frequently featured in the local press, on TV and radio, we have a podcast called Our Unspoken Truths, and we have been shortlisted for several national awards for our work.
Our work is collaborative in nature, and we work in partnership with a wide range of agencies and charities who are also active in violence reduction work – for example, knife crime victim support, Aspire Boxing, Sharrow Community Forum. We do not always agree; however, we value all views each other’s perspectives, and our members and partners come from a very diverse spectrum of society, in terms of socio-economics, ethnicity, religion, culture, politics and life experience. What holds us together is a passion to fight against the violence which is blighting our communities and stealing the future of so many people.
For all these reasons, we believe that Sheffield has huge potential to raise awareness and educate children, young people and adults about the harmful effects that violent behaviour has on communities. Mums United recently organized a trip for several dozen parents and children to visit The Knife Angel in Chesterfield. We have lots of ideas about how we would want to add to the experience of seeing the sculpture, with educational workshops, public engagement events, awareness-raising and educational activities. Our experience over the past 3 years means we have local parents and young people with the life experience, confidence and skills to lead and facilitate these kinds of activities, bringing a powerful human learning experience to complement the Knife Angel.”
Chair of Mums United Sahira Irshad visiting knife angel in Chesterfield (Source: Sahira Irshad’s Facebook page)
Comments