Northern Lights: Podcast will help spread awareness of tackling serious youth violence

The feeling of achieving this is excellent, especially after I’ve invested in hours of my time.

With the influx of conversations, I was having around serious youth violence with victims’ families and friends, along with different community groups trying to put an end to it.

I thought that if I could interview them about their experiences or projects it would help spread awareness on the issue.

It was at that point that I decided that a Podcast was the best way to move forward. Not only would it be able to spread awareness on serious youth violence but it would also show the current state of serious youth violence and the devastating impact that it has on families and communities.

The aim is simple, to get people to go away with something to think about, learn from it or look at things with a different point of view.

The first step was to create a name, pretty simple as the title of the article suggests. Next was to create the artwork, which has changed over time.

I listened to a fair few podcasts and the ones that stood out where the ones with catchy introductions.

To accomplished this, I found an up-tempo hip hop beat and then introduced myself, the podcast and what it was about.

The first 7 episodes featured people from all over the U.K and were published from January 2021 to April 2021.

Here is some information about them:

Episode 1: Hear the story from a worried mother of an unprovoked and vicious knife attack that nearly took her sons life.

Episode 2: How the journey of independence landed a just turned 18-year-old male life in prison for murder; a story told through the eyes of his mother.

Episode 3: Would being shot in the face make you reevaluate your life choices? Listen to a mother share her worries about her son entrenched in gang violence.

Episode 4: I talk to a knife attacker to understand why he used a knife and how his strategy to stop him from being bullied when he was younger, made his life in prison difficult until he changed.

Episode 5: Safiya who plays a major part in her community, talks knife crime, young people and why she is wanting to become a councillor.

Episode 6: 500 Together; the new way of making a difference! Listen to how its members only pay £1 a week but are helping so many people.

Episode 7: Birmingham Says No to violent crimes but yes to making a difference! Here is some of the amazing work that is going on in Birmingham.

Nearly two years later, in 2023 we were awarded funding by the Tramlines Community to produce 10 more exciting episodes of the podcast.

This time we wanted to focus as much as possible on people and projects from, or living in Sheffield.

There are some episodes yet to be released but here is some information on the episode that have been released so far:

Episode 8: Jason Baker was given 10 years for murder at the young age of 15 and ended up serving 25 years. Is the prison system made to keep people returning?

Episode 9: Ricky Reeves - Central area boxing title holder, Professional boxer, Teacher, Family man.

And he still found time to talk with me with be about his the importance of his role with students, the importance of sports and how he manages his time.

Episode 10: I talk with Dr Charlotte Coleman to see if images of knives are desensitising our children to knife crime.

Episode 11: I talk with the founder of Mental Mate Boxing about mental health and boxing, the difficulties of offering a free service and the future of the project.

Episode 12: Anger, Rage, Revenge but coping through poetry. Eugene Scardifield talks about the painful loss of his brother Michael.

Episode 13: Heart break as Hayley talks about her Eight-year-old cousin Mylee, who was stabbed to death by her jealous father. We also discuss what she thinks could be done to reduce knife crime.

Episode 14 is being released on 10.07.23. I talk with Amelia and Dom about Peace in the Park, a community event that attracts over 10,000 people.

I would like to take the chance to thank all of the guests that have been on the podcast.

I appreciate that some of the topics were very difficult to talk about, but your story might change some one else’s life. I could not have done this without any of you.

Even though our funding is coming to an end, I would love to keep the podcast going as it is helping so many people across the UK.

If you believe that you can help us reach our goal of achieving what we started the podcast for, please feel free to get in touch, I would love to hear from you.

You can find the link to our podcasts on our website www.alwaysanalternative.org.uk