Hemmingwell community centre is full of personality - Wellingborough documentary

I had been contemplating making a video on Hemmingwell where I was born and raised for some time but I didn’t know what angle to approach it until one day I was out aimlessly flying my drone when I met Kam, Kam is a CIC who has been a youth worker in the Hemmingwell since 2012 and he offered me the most incredible insight into the local youth centre to see the amazing work that all of the team at Hemmingwell community & skills centre do to keep these kids developing healthily away from negative influences. Why is the youth centre so crucial for the children in this area? Hemmingwell was built in the 1960s as part of a national push for affordable social housing, estates from this era were designed with isolated cul-de-sacs and alleyways, poor surveillance and communal areas that were hard to monitor, these layouts were intended to create community. Even though the layout did help to create community industries such as factories and manual jobs declined in Wellingborough and Hemmingwell's residents were disproportionately affected leading to: Long-term unemployment Low educational attainment Financial stress seperating parents Poverty cycles across generations that is still rebalancing today when there's a lack of opportunity young people are drawn towards quick money, often through drug dealing, theft or joining gangs and england was still quite a racist place at the time so Hemmingwells afro-caribbean community also felt the lack of opportunity a lot harder more modern causes having been oppressive stance on benefit claimants with sanctions pushing otherwise harmless people without a vision in life towards desperate acts for food and money so this layout became a hotspot for anti social behaviour, crime and easy get aways. The estate developed a reputation which deterred outside investment leaving residents feeling alienated and written off, people lost trust in the authorities and stopped reporting crime. There is many current factors which I will leave out because I don't want to go political but the need to distract children away from the bad environment and keep them around positive mentors is stronger than ever and thankfully Hemmingwell has a great team that does that and have done so for a long time, way before I arrived with my camera and the mentors and the children's parents are doing a fantastic job to keep these children happy and healthy with non toxic ambitions. Youth centres are crucial not just for influencing the children but they gain a safe space, mentors, creative outlets and crucial early interventions which they didn't have back in the 2010s when county lines and child grooming were on the rise, some children are home schooled and need the social aspect of mixing with others and without the community centre more of hemmingwell's young people will fall through the cracks and get pulled into crime. I think the whole team here do an amazing job, I hope they feel a great amount of pride watching this video If you would like your child to attend please contact the centre directly Hemmingwell community & skills centre Fit and fed The Compound Wellingborough (calisthenics)