Amid a surge in teen violence and knife crime an Edmonton charity is at the forefront of efforts to tackle the issue

Jason Thompson (left) and Chris McCoy (right) from NYCC

An Edmonton youth group on the frontline of tackling crime has appealed for help after Metropolitan Police figures showed the borough ranked highest in London for teen violence.

A 20% rise in knife crime across Enfield borough is causing particular concern, with young people increasingly buying cheap knives online as a form of protection.

Northside Youth and Community Connections (NYCC) has been collecting thousands of weapons – including swords, machetes and the recently-banned ‘zombie’ knives – with 379 handed to the charity in October alone. Concerned parents are often the ones who raise the alarm.

Established in 2008 by Chris McCoy in response to rising gang violence, NYCC recently celebrated the launch of its newly-expanded youth centre, utilising an abandoned office building at Edmonton Green Shopping Centre – which it says will make it the largest in the UK. Inside the Tardis-like building there are gaming consoles, pool tables, televisions and several studios designed for teaching particular skills.

NYCC has partnered with Faz Amnesty to help collect knives locally and has plans to melt down the weapons it collects to turn them into jewellery through a metalworking project involving its young members. The charity runs numerous other projects teaching dance and music skills, an employability programme, victim support, as well as a foodbank.

Explaining how NYCC was at the forefront of tackling knife crime locally, Chris told the Dispatch: “We will support anyone who is scared and wants to change their life.

“After the police refer them to us, or we take a knife off them, it is about what happens next. We need to offer them hooks to engage them and get them out of trouble. We want young people to bond over something positive like drama or boxing instead of crime.”

Chris said that it was both boys and girls who were carrying knives and part of the problem now was the availability of cheap weapons online. “They are buying 20 or 30 knives for £15 online, they don’t care if they get caught at customs because they are so cheap,” he said.

“We helped someone who was carrying a knife because he was being bullied and beaten up and he felt he needed a weapon.”

Jason Thompson, a project manager at NYCC, said he was working with ex-gang members to harness the skills they have. “The core of what we do is engagement and access,” he explained. “Someone who is left to their own devices might end up in gangs or drug dealing and that kind of thing. We give them other options.”

A launch event for NYCC's newly expanded youth centre was held at the end of October — A launch event for NYCC’s newly expanded youth centre was held at the end of October

Despite receiving help from Edmonton Green Shopping Centre that has allowed it to expand, NYCC remains desperate for funding. Chris is critical of the model that forces community groups to compete against each other for small pots of cash and wants to see a stronger network of support developed.

He added: “We have to fight the system at every angle […] We just work hard to ensure that people don’t die.”

The subject of knife crime was discussed at an overview and scrutiny committee meeting last month, at which Enfield Council leader Ergin Erbil responded to the latest data that knife crime with injury offences had risen 20.8% in the borough in the year to September. This rise came despite a 4.8% fall in violent offences as a whole.

Cllr Erbil said: “Over the past 14 years the police and other public services have been underfunded, so they are ill-equipped to deal with some of the issues we are seeing.

“We’ve got voluntary groups working day in, day out, we’ve got public services who are ill-equipped, and we’ve got parents and schools who are scared to speak out.

“What we have to do as a key partner in all of this is to bring them all together, which is what we’ve been doing.”

A recent partnership between the council and police has seen officers focusing on two of the most impacted wards, Upper Edmonton and Edmonton Green, aiming to improve safety on housing estates in particular.

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