Inside Out is a flexible educational workshop for young people exploring the consequences of crime. The Home Office and Association of London Government fund the project.

The project is designed to get young people a real view about crime and counter act the glamorisation of the criminal lifestyle. The sessions are delivered using a variety of individuals who are either ex-offenders, victims of crime or criminal justice professionals.

The project is aimed at young people between 11-19yrs and has been delivered in a variety of Youth Clubs, Schools and Youth Offending Teams across the country.

It aims to empower young people with the facts and raise awareness on the youth justice system. “Unfortunately people think young people are aware of crime, but most of it is informed by peers, myths and the media. They are very shocked when they hear some of the experiences our facilitators inform them about” Says Rev Nims Obunge, Chief Executive of The Peace Alliance

The programme is really powerful and is fortunate to have a team of facilitators willing to share their experiences to divert young people from crime.

One of the facilitators, Penny Fearon lost her brother Jason Fearon through a shooting outside Turnmills Nightclub in May 2003. The young people get to see clips of the funeral and here the goodbye speech from Jason’s son.

“You can see that young people are affected by this when they watch it and their minds start ticking away”. Says Seema Chandwani, Project Co-ordinator. “During the workshops the comment on imagining their parents in similar situations and how they would hate for them to be hurt so bad”

Other facilitators talk about their lives in prison with some of the facilitators having spent about 18 years inside. The young people get given details about being inside and what it is like being out. This includes simple things like getting a passport, opening a bank account, not having no where to live or being able to get a job.

One of the facilitators is Winston Silcott, who served 18 years in prison. “Young People are very aware of whom Winston is and this adds effectiveness to the message – they find it astonishing that this person who some of them perceived as aniconic criminal felt lonely, missed his family and had no idea how to use a mobile phone or a cash machine due to his incarceration”. Seema Chandwani explains.

The Inside Out session is available to be facilitated all over the country, for more information please contact the Peace Alliance on 0208 808 9439.