S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys Project (360G-ThriveLDN-289)

14. What is your project? (400 words) S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys Project is a series of four 8 week-long wellbeing workshops in four schools across four boroughs of London (Lambeth, Southwark, Haringey & Wandsworth), working with 13-16 year old Black boys. This will culminate in an exhibition of their images, written poems, short film and audio media created collaboratively with myself during the workshops - at Battersea Arts Centre, Theatre Peckham, Southbank Centre, Brixton Village & EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney). The workshops will be designed using a Wellcome Trust-funded happiness research already conducted in Scandinavia and Bhutan by me through poetry, photography and film. The project will empower this demographic of boys to explore their mental health and happiness levels in a bid to reduce their propensity towards violence, more specifically the rise in stabbings in London. The project addresses the rising number of youth stabbings and fatalities amongst Black boys in London through a public health preventative approach. The rise in youth violence is one of the symptoms of lack of mental health support for this demographic, as documented in the mental health foundation and the centre of mental health reports. The number of youth stabbings in London from April 2017-April 2018 came in at 1,299 and this number has risen by 16% since 2018 - (Statistics from The BBC). This project will provide the audience the opportunity to understand and engage with the realities of these young people; provide a platform for them to celebrate their works and achievements; help boost their self-esteem; and share important learnings from the whole process. There will be a period of planning for the workshops and selection process by the 4 schools. The project will run until the end of the Summer term which will then lead to a series of S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys celebration events to bring these young boys together to share positive stories and positive narratives of themselves in a bid to empower this community and challenge stereotypes that lead to self fulfilling prophesies, and to keep them engaged in positive projects instead of other negative ventures. The project aims to build on the contents of the workshop following a robust social impact evaluation, add a peer mentorship structure as this was identified as one of the key needs to foster continuity in a bid to cascade this methodology to the younger kids of this demographic.