The writing on the wall

But now, thanks to the determined efforts of housing officers, the teenagers have removed the scrawl from the estate, rechannelled their energies into getting involved in the community and have become positive role models for local kids.

Most local authorities suffer from the social blight of graffiti (see page 27). The problem is most severe in London: concern is so high there that the national government has just backed calls from London councils for a ban on the sale of aerosol paints to under-18s (HT 8 August, page 13).

But that’s not the only way local authorities are tackling the issue. The change in behaviour of Ali and his friends, who live on the Redcoat estate in Tower Hamlets, east London, shows how councils can tackle the root causes of graffiti – boredom and disaffection – rather than simply treat the symptom by cleaning up after the culprits.

Housing manager Imtiyaz Bobat led the work with Redcoat’s teenagers. He says: “Youngsters haven’t got many activities in the summer because of low income and a lack of things to do in the area. That’s when they start doing graffiti.”

Officers on the estate were already building bridges with disaffected youngsters by encouraging team activities like football and table tennis. “Working together to remove graffiti is another way of trying to do this,” says Bobat.

Housing officers tracked down those responsible for the graffiti through their “tags” – unique graffiti signatures.

But instead of immediately punishing the culprits, Bobat and his team asked them why they felt the need to graffiti and urged them to clean it up. Feeling they were being listened to, the teenagers agreed.

“Now these guys have shown they are committed to working with the local community for the benefit of this area,” says Bobat.

Ali and his five friends worked with the housing officers to form their own youth club – the Jubilee Youth Group. In the past four months, membership has grown to 30.

Ali says: “Because there wasn’t much to do, we used to hang around with loads of other kids and people used to classify us as a gang – which we’re not. So in the beginning we started off in a rough spot with the council.

“But once we started working with them we managed to get other lads to follow in our footsteps and we felt that we could achieve something. When other kids saw us achieving things they wanted to do the same.”

The Jubilee Youth Group raises funds by holding jumble sales and members have painted a mural on the themes of friendship and tolerance which will be exhibited at a local library this summer. They also started to attend tenants’ meetings – something that was unthinkable four months before. At the meetings, they talked about the reasons for their behaviour and also helped to build cultural bridges, as many of them are from Asian backgrounds whereas the tenants’ association is predominantly white.

The approach in Tower Hamlets is backed by experts such as Christine Gibbons, coordinator of the voluntary group Children’s and Young People’s Services East Greenwich (CYPSEG), based not far from the Redcoat. Gibbons agrees that tackling the reasons that lead youngsters to graffiti is key to solving the problem. “To me graffiti represents a mini way of being famous,” she says.

“It’s about the fact that they don’t feel that they are part of the community. Graffiti gives them a way to mark their territory and it makes them feel better.”

CYPSEG gets £22,000 of government funding for three years to cover the costs of staffing the organisation and the materials for the projects. The purpose of the organisation is to work with disaffected youngsters who have been excluded from school or been in trouble, and offer them a way of channelling their interests.

Gibbons helped set up an initiative that works with youngsters on Greenwich council’s Flamsteed estate in south-east London. Set up in November 2000, the project lasted 12 months and focused on encouraging young people who would usually write graffiti to use their artistic skills in a project beneficial to the community. By liaising with other residents on the estates and the local police, Gibbons worked with the young people to design a series of murals on the estate walls.

Spending time with youths and finding out what they can achieve when given the chance is what is most important to Gibbons. She says: “One of the things that the graffiti project proved was that once people stop stereotyping these children, they realise that they are normal.”