Who Are We?
Project 4 Youth Empowerment (P4YE) is a Community Interest Company born by four friends who became tired of constantly speaking about issues impacting young people negatively, so they decided to do something about it.
Concerned about the number of young people involved in, or on the verge of criminality, unemployed, or not in education or training, our team decided to try to change the narrative by dedicating tailored programmes for young people.
We assist young people and families by offering a range of support such as group and 1:1 mentoring, online workshops, case study workshops, a weekly youth club, advocacy, and signposting to other professional services.
Prevention, intervention, and diversional work is at the forefront of what we do and what we aim for with our young people.
We have been trained in Conflict Resolution and mediation and work to resolve instances that can often lead to situations of serious youth violence by using our bespoke methods.
Our team has many years of experience of working with young people in a variety of settings such as youth work, teaching, specialised gang work, outreach work and working with young people with special educational needs (SEN). We also have experience in leadership, project management and media and we use our skill sets when developing projects and programmes.
Meet the team
Wayne Lindsay
One of the co-founders of P4YE, Wayne has recently graduated from University with a First Class Honours Degree in Criminology & Psychology.
Wayne has a wealth of experience working with young people in many different capacities, from schools, PRU’s, to being a trained appropriate adult in Police Custody.
Coming from a Logistics background, Wayne is instrumental in shaping the organisation going forward with strategic and development plans whilst overseeing the day-to-day operations of P4YE.
Joseph Amuah
Joseph is a Gang and Serious Violence worker for a Local Authority and brings over a decade of experience of working with young people.
Workshop delivery is one of Joseph’s areas of expertise and he brings a wide range of experience to ensure that we tailor bespoke sessions to suit the audience.
Joseph is also able to use his understanding of the details behind gang culture from his experience working with young people in this field to support families who are experiencing challenges.
Stephanie White
Stephanie White has been a youth worker for 16 years. Starting in 2007, she volunteered with Croydon Council’s youth detached team and later worked on various youth programs.
Stephanie holds an NVQL3 diploma in youth work and specializes in gangs and youth violence. She serves on a Department of Education Taskforce and supports P4YE’s mission.
Passionate about empowering young people, Stephanie says: “Life doesn’t have to be what they perceive; it can be what they make of it by valuing themselves.”
What do we do?
P4YE takes a holistic approach to the current issues surrounding disenfranchised young people. We believe it is important to support the parents alongside the young person to improve the wellbeing of the family, and to do that we provide parents and carers with safe spaces where they can speak freely without judgement and get the help they require.
To assist their development, we offer young people support into education, employment, or training and through our Youth Empowerment programme we deliver workshops which teach life skills and focus on setting goals, changing behaviour, and realising potential.
The dedication and passion towards working with young people in the community has brought the individuals from P4YE together. P4YE is dedicated to reducing instances of school exclusions, incidents of serious youth violence and exploitation, which can lead to criminality, by engaging young people in ways that give them a chance to flourish positively and brings them away from the margins of society. Our holistic approach benefits the individual, the family, and the community, by engaging and empowering.
We deliver informal education in schools, and we take direct referrals from the Metropolitan Police, Social Services, Leaving Care Teams and Youth Offending services.
Our Vision
Our vision is to reduce instances of serious youth violence, child sexual exploitation (CSE) and school exclusions. We are committed to supporting young people by providing them with positive opportunities in education, employment, and training. We advocate for young people to give them a voice which will in turn, empower them towards a bright future. Our commitment is to the community as a whole with the focus on families and young people.
Our Mission Statement
From the start, we agreed that even if we save one child’s life and give them opportunities for a bright future, then our work has been worth its weight in gold. Today, we dedicate our time, energy, and resources to providing young people and their families the support that they need but is sometimes lacking. We consider it a privilege to be able to use our skills and experience to be able to support, advocate for and mentor young people as we can speak to them in a language that they understand. We vow to continue to bridge the gap between the professionals and the community.
Why do we do this?
P4YE are fully aware of the concerns facing the borough, with the financial problems facing the Local Authority and the sustained levels of violence affecting young people in and around the London Rd area we stand ready to deliver locally designed intervention programs to address those issues over a minimum of 2 years.
The annual Public Health Report in 2017 revealed that 10,261 people in Croydon live in areas considered to be within the 10% most deprived in the whole country. Trust for London reports that Croydon is worse than average for qualifications for young people at 19, totalling 37.6%. It revealed that the borough is worse than average in the amount of people on benefits @ 13.2%, and the unemployment rate is 5.4%. Although the borough has a good GCSE attainment rate, it is also worse than the national average number of people with no qualifications, with 7.5% of the proportion of working-age adults having no qualifications.
An inspection of the Youth Offending service of Croydon by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of probation in 2019 found that a third of children and young people known to the Youth Offending Service (YOS) are not in post-16 education, employment, or training. This is a much higher percentage than in the general population. They noted that children and young people known to YOS are much more likely than others in the borough not to have education, training, or employment opportunities once they reach 16 even though it is well known that education, training, or employment is critical in supporting desistance.
P4YE has a proven track record of working with young people referred from the police, probation and YOS who are considered difficult to engage and we have consistently demonstrated that we are best placed to carry out this type of work.
Organisations We Partner With
