Thursday June 21, 2018
Glasgow unit hopes community collaboration will prevent gang crime spreading from London
Nagad (left), six-month-old Newel and Samira at the Sunshine Koffee cafe in Glasgow. Photograph: Kirsty Anderson / Herald and Tim
A Scottish policing unit that dramatically reduced Glasgow’s knife
crime rate is responding to fears that gang violence affecting Somalis
in London could spread north through a unique collaboration with the
community’s women.
The pioneering Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) – which was visited by the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, earlier this year
– is to work exclusively with women for the first time, having
traditionally focused on breaking cycles of violent behaviour among
young, usually white, males.
Officers will offer training in Scots law, conflict trauma and mental
health to Somali women, who officers believe have the greatest access
to the young people most at risk.
The One Community project has been developed by Khadija Coll, who has worked with refugees in Scotland
and Somalia for more than 20 years. She was instrumental in the
successful campaign to legislate against FGM in the Scottish parliament.
“When they see what is happening in London, their fear is real,” Coll
told the Guardian. “That’s why these Glasgow mums came together –
because they don’t want that to happen here. Families are scattered all
over the world, so it’s not unusual to have have an auntie here and
another in London. They even found out about the two boys [two Somali
teenagers who were stabbed to death in London in February within two
hours of each other] before it was released to the press.”
The VRU’s acting director, Will Linden, said the collaboration was a
direct response to community concerns. “We’ve had to on [those fears]
because, if we’re talking about prevention, then just because the
problems don’t exist here anywhere like they do in London doesn’t mean
they won’t in the future. If we wait another year or two to intervene we
might be fighting a losing battle.”
While there is no specific intelligence to suggest violent
individuals are moving from London to Glasgow, Linden says “we know
there is movement across the country within these communities”.
Glasgow’s Somali community is relatively small – about 3,000 – compared with the estimated 70,000 people in London.
As the focus of the VRU shifts to incorporate changing demographics
and the growth of “New Scots” communities, Linden says he is well aware
of the difficulties in building trust, in particular with groups whose
experience of police brutality or corruption in other countries may
create initial barriers.
For Coll, training women to act as community champions and
intermediaries is an obvious strategy. “With Horn of Africa communities
it is the women who are really running the households. They are scared
of their kids isolating and making bad choices, and they understand the
challenges they face settling in a new country”.
She said the women involved were keen to help their young people
access education and employment services, and support them in dealing
with racist or Islamophobic bullying, which some experience at school.
They also want to break the stigma around mental ill-health, often
experienced by young people who have witnessed conflict before arriving
in Scotland.
Coll acknowledged the project’s workers could face suspicion from
more traditional community members: “We do have to do it under the radar
because some don’t want women to be empowered.”
Jonathan
Kankolongo, 21, is about to graduate with a law degree from Glasgow
Caledonian University. He joined a youth discussion group organised by
Coll last year. Born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he moved
to Glasgow when he was four years old. He says many of his peers who
moved to Scotland as older teenagers have struggled to integrate.
“Some young people are coming over aged 18, they have a lot to deal
with, learn a new language, learn the culture, and that’s why it’s vital
to have people visible in communities to be role models.”
“What is happening in London is a reality,” he adds. “It shows that, a
much as the UK is evolving, these circumstances still exist and we need
to fix them.”