Campaigns
A Society Free Of Knife Crime
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The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return Impact Campaign
Statistics:
Knife-enabled crime in England and Wales has risen by 80% over the past decade, and the number of teenagers that have been killed with a knife or a sharp object has gone up by 240%. In April, the Met police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, warned of a £450m funding gap and said rates of knife crime could rise without more government backing.
“It instils fear,” Edmunds says. “People carry knives because they want to protect themselves. But the play is trying to say that the moment you decide to carry a knife is the moment you are in danger. Because statistically, a person carrying a knife is actually more likely to be injured by it.”
Interview with writer Sam Edmunds on The Guardian
Campaign:
The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return was a play inspired by Sam's lived experience of knife crime in Luton, alongside conversations with young people in Luton, and informed by mothers who had lost their son to knife crime.
Alongside this production, we launched our national campaign in partnership with the Ben Kinsella Trust, initially support by Beds Veru, which saw us deliver knife crime intervention workshops in Bristol, London, Luton, Liverpool, Newcastle, Slough, Norwich, Exeter, Peterborough and Essex. This work reached and benefitted over 1000 young people.
“I learned that there is always hope and second chances. Reach for your dreams. Don't let where you come from stop you.“
"Your background isn’t what defines you.”
“I learnt that knife crime is very prevalent in the UK and if you’re working class your environment might “force” you to not live life to the fullest and follow the path you want.”
“That knife crime can happen spontaneously and without prior thought.”
“People can change.”
Our outreach programme invited young people in from schools and youth groups to watch our production in each town or city we toured to. Post watching the performance, they would then attend a workshop addressing the material of the play, led by a facilitator trained by the Ben Kinsella Trust, and a drama therapist. Participants were encouraged to interrogate the themes of the play, the moments where characters made damaging decisions, and encouraged to reimagine how to stop or prevent the consequences of that. The opportunity to re-write the ending or scene, allowed them to interrogate how to prevent threatening situations in their own lives through improvisation and devising.
“It was educational and we got to create our own positive outcome
of the climax of the performance.”
“I really enjoyed thinking about how we would avoid these
situations and creating a showing of this.”
Help Support This Urgent Issue
In April, the Met police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, warned of a £450m funding gap and said rates of knife crime could rise without more government backing.
Donate Today:
https://benkinsella.org.uk/donate/
Spread Awareness:
https://bedsvepp.org/just-drop-it/#find-support