: SOUTH LONDON PRESS TODAY :

Feature Item:

Keey site to keep kids out of trouble

Friday, 22 July 2011

By Lindsay Burns

A RECONSTRUCTION of a gangland shooting and an interview with the victim on how he turned his life around have been included on a new website for young people.

That is one of several dramatisations of real-life events created by film students and a charity worker as part of a new website to help kids in trouble.

Keey, which stands for Knowledge, Encouraging and Enhancing Youth, uses short films and documentaries to capture young people’s attention and includes links to charities and community projects across London.

Nominated for an Our Heroes Award as part of this paper’s campaign to highlight the best things about South London, Keey directs people to services that offer everything from help writing CVs to support after leaving prison.

The idea came from Darren Haastrup, a volunteer at offender rehabilitation charity St Giles Trust in Camberwell.

The rest of the team are media students Louis Leeson, Eleri Luff, Patrick Hoelscher, Sara Hajjar and Luke Roche.

Patrick, 23, is a photojournalism student at the London College of Communications in Elephant & Castle. He said: “The main issue is kids who might be involved, or at risk of getting involved, in gang culture.

“The prime age for this is 13- to 14-year-olds. We want them to see the videos, to see the interviews with people who have got away from gang life and realise that there is another way.

But it’s also for people who need help with CV-writing, need advice about benefits and all sorts of things.”

The £3,000 funding for the project came from the Prince’s Trust, which offered the money after Darren gave a presentation earlier this year.

The website is being launched at the Ritzy in Brixton this summer, where the short films will also be screened.

All of the South London Press Our Heroes nominees’ stories will be given to a panel of judges, who will choose the award winners in September.

The campaign ends with a gala ceremony at the South Bank headquarters of our sponsor, Shell, on November 15. Visit www.keey.co.uk for more about the Keey project.

Copyright Tindle Newspapers Ltd Monday, 20 May 2013