When i first met my great friend, Richard Taylor OBE in 2004, I spoke to him about my thoughts on the violence impacting young people that already by then was far worse than in 2000 when he had so tragically lost Damilola on the streets of Peckham, South London

My observation at that time was that until we found solutions to poverty and inequality I thought the problem would be very likely to spiral out of control. Nobody would be glad to see a prophecy like that come to fruition!

By 2008 when we had lost 29 young people to interpersonal violence in London I was MD of the Trust and our theory of change had been established in trying to do things differently. The Spirit of London awards (SOLA) movement was testament to this. The biggest live youth awards show ever staged in the UK celebrating the kind of young person Damilola represented. Switching the dial from the constant media barrage of negativety around young people. We launched SOLA in 2009

In 2013 after one of our youngest SOLA alumni lost a friend and mentor to street violence and reached out to me for the support of the awards alumni in finding solutions I stepped away from my DTT role to help them set up a project called One Big Community. A peer to peer initative entirely focused on listening to young peoples thoughts and opinions on what was underpinning the problem and what long term solutions might look like. We staged incredibly raw and authentic peer to peer workshop style events and engaged thousands of young people in the process

This project played an integral role in the development of an all party Parliamentary commission into root causes youth violence that I also became the lead advisor for.

In 2019 after the Parliamentary commission released its final report I returned to support the DTT with the development of its 20th anniversary campaign. We decided to focus the project on a short essay Damilola had written shortly before his death. He had written about his vision of a safer World. He had written about hope!

I pulled together many of the organisations and key professionals that had supported the Parliamentary commission. There had been a very strong team ethic and sense of community around the parliament commission work and so it was a natural fit especially with so much momentum having been created with the adoption of the public health approach to safeguarding young people around the UK. Hope is the most important ingredient of all in a public health approach to supporting the most vulnerable after all!

We announced the plans on the evening of the 19th anniversary at a private screening of the BAFTA winning drama “Damilola our loved boy” at the Ritzy cinema Brixton

Our attempts to stage a series of events around the UK to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy were thwarted by the Covid pandemic which eventually led to the memorial service itself planned for the date of the tragedy being cancelled. A huge amount of effort had gone into the planning and preperation so it caused heartbreak to Richard and his family and everyone involved when by a matter of days it fell victim to the second lockdown.

Our efforts were certainly far from in vain though as we had wanted to create a legacy for Damilola that could have long term sustainable impact so when the Prime Minister endorsed Damilolas date of birth 7th December as the National UK Day of Hope it was a fitting pay off for all the hard work that had gone into the planning in the first place. It will now serve as a legacy for Damilola in perpetuity. A day when young people are celebrated the lenght and breadth of the UK for their ambitions, aspirations and hopes

Boris Johnson backs Day of Hope for Damilola Taylor’s birthday – DUK News (dailyuknews.com)

The partnership cohort that had been brought together was now impressive with leading youth orgs UK YOUTH and NCS providing the youth interface and a wonderful group of young people coopted onto the youth leadership board to develop ideas to celebrate the Day of Hope with a series of online events

The development of the Hope collective membership was going from strength to strength with the UK network of Violence reduction units (VRU’s) also aligning along with corporate brands and statutory bodies such as the Coop and the Professional Footballers Association, the National Housing Associations Youth Network and the NHS. This in no small way played a role in the enablement of the Day of Hope being established with the full support of Downing Street

This Year the Hope Collective decided to become properly organised, develop a constitution and invest in a long term piece of work that would bring young people together across the UK and engage them in discussing solutions to poverty and inequality, what a fairer society might look if young people had a stake in levelling up their local communities.

The HOPE HACKATHONS would start with a pilot in 2021 that saw events staged in London, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff and Glasgow and then if proven to be successful be rolled out across the UK in 2022.

All the data and summary outcomes produced will be shared across the VRU network and with statutory authorities. The essence of hope after all is that it needs to be shared far and wide!

With National Citizenship Service (NCS) leading on the Hope Hacks and UK Youth which comprises of over 8,000 grass roots youth orgs in its membership network, managing the Day of Hope itself we are in extremely competent and safe hands on the youth voice interface side of the project. We also have the premier youth club specialists, Onside Zones very much a part of the group and playing an active role with the Hope Hacks. Add all the other ingredients in the pot and I think we are cooking something up that looks and smells a whole lot like change!