Unfortunately we were unable to raise the funds for SFN Issue 2 with this crowdfunder, however with a fair amount of the Pilot Issue and Issue 1 still to distribute we hope to raise the required funds before the end of the year.
Help SFN raise £5,000 to produce and distribute SFN Issue 2 by supporting our Crowdfunder page here:
Star Family News (SFN) is a news and education service for the hardest to reach young people in London who are either gang affiliated or non affiliated.
It is accepted that the majority of the hardest to reach young people in London who are affected by the rising levels of violence were excluded from schooling.
"Five of the capital's parlimentary constituencies – Barking, Hackney South and Shoreditch, Camberwell and Peckham, Bethnal Green and Bow and Poplar and Limehouse – are among those with the lowest literacy levels in England, according to a new study from The National Literacy Trust and Experian."
As SFN is a small start up, it is very mobile and believes in taking the service to where the young people are.
To date all services provided by SFN have been unfunded - this includes the production, printing and on-going distribution of 20,000 16 page educational newsletters and the creation and maintenance of the website and blog.
SFN is seeking to raise £5,000 to fund the following things:
Production of 40,000 educational booklets (Star Family News Issue 2)
Distribution costs of 40,000 newsletters
Creation and delivery of street workshops and interventions
Production of educational material
Ongoing business costs
SFN has been active in some of the most violent communities in London having distributed newsletters and/or engaged with young people in:
Tottenham, Wood Green, London Fields, Holly Street, Angel Town, Church Road, Bruce Road, Stonebridge, Isle of Dogs, Seven Kings, Peckham High St, Hill St, Willowbrook estate, Shadwell, Somerleyton Road Brixton, Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith, Barking, Bow, Lewisham, Stratford, Poplar, Forest Hill and Hounslow East.
However SFN's electronic presence is far greater and whilst difficult to quantify we are aware that electronic versions of our articles, educational newsletters and lessons have been distributed not only in many gang affiliated areas in London and the UK but also internationally.
A strategy SFN is currently using is to ensure the right people are engaged is to create a presence at locations of recent stabbings/shootings/murders as the case may be. As SFN learns of the latest violent event in London, the area is then targeted for distribution of educational newsletters and engagement.