Government cut backs cause teens to resort to a life of crime?

Government cut backs cause teens to resort to a life of crime?

 

Tom Haroldson was a teen who once went to a youth club in his youth and that youth club was shut down in 2014 by the government. We spoke to him to find out his opinions on the case of the matter. Tom now 19 years old shares his experience on going to a youth group and growing up in one of the worst estate in east London and how this opened him up to go into graffiti and street art.

How do you feel about your youth club shutting down and how do you think this relates to teenagers and the increase in graffiti? I hate the government for shutting down my youth club as many kids and teenagers needed the youth club to be safe and to be surrounded by people who want better for us. They don't look down on us because we life in a bad estate they look at us as if where any other kid in any other kids. I also think that graffiti has been around for a long time and it has been part of the youth's life. I do think that the youth clubs closing down has increased but that's because we don't have anything else to do as many of the kids and teenagers parents are gone because they have to go to work to make money for us so many of us are left to our own devices. 

How has not going to a youth club affected you and your friends? As i say been, we are left to our own devices and we needed youth clubs because after school we use to go to the youth clubs and they knew all the kids in the estate so they knew if the kids and the teenagers parents are at work they would let the kid stay in the youth club and the parents would pick them up when they were done with work. Teenagers only went there because they would give them food and for many people that were the only food they were going to have all day other than free school lunch. Since the youth club close down a lot of the kids don't really eat food after school is done i think that is wrong.   

Do you think that the government cutting cost on youth clubs will affect the younger generation? I think that it will affect the younger generation as they will not have youth clubs and if you asks many people who went to youth clubs as kids and teenagers would tell you that youth clubs are really needed as they have people who care for you and are a bit like you older brothers and sisters. Living in one of the worst estate in London doesn't not help so if you have people in the youth clubs that care for you it's very nice and the younger generation will see out on that.

Do you think that graffiti and street art is a great way to distract the youth from doing worse things such as joining gangs, drugs etc..? I think that it is a great way to distract the youth from drugs but I am not sure about teenagers Joining gangs because a lot of people join gangs but that because they have a lot of time on their hands and a lot of people need to feel like people care for them because they are not getting it at home. I do think that graffiti helps teenagers because they are able to express themselves with the street art but I don't think that it has the power to completely change things but that's why we teenagers need youth clubs because the people there care about you which is a change from the way some people treat us.

How do you feel about the police looking at graffiti and street art as crimes and do you should be jailed for it? I don't like Way police look down on people who do graffiti because it is art I don't know why it does look down upon just because it's not in galleries it is really sad that the Lord is like that I hope that the laws change where graffiti is legal or at least they set up clubs or maybe places where people can do graffiti without The dangers of being arrested or damaging someone's property because I don't think that is right for people to damage people's properties because they want to do graffiti but I do feel like graffiti is needed because graffiti is the voice of a generation at the time and I feel like it is a bit like a time Capsule on what's going on in this generation.