Youth Echo

Welcome to Youth Echo

Youth Echo is a three-year programme funded by the City Bridge Foundation through the Propel Grant, designed to put young people at the heart of change in Haringey. The programme aims to empower young people to lead system change actions to tackle roots causes of racial inequity and interrelated poverty and violence through targeted actions

Working in partnership with North London Partnership Consortium and the Godwin Lawson Foundation, Youth Echo amplifies the voices of young people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities, supporting them to influence the systems and services that shape their lives. From health and education to employment and community safety, we create spaces where young people are not just heard, but actively shape solutions.

Through social action projects, mentoring, and pathways into employment, we equip young people with the skills, confidence, and opportunities to lead. The result is a growing movement of empowered young people driving meaningful change across their communities; their voices are not only valued, but impossible to ignore.

"I feel Youth Echo is an amazing approach in Haringey and one that is very unique in terms of how young people can be referred and offered support. I have found the team extremely kind, open, and transparent about what the goals are... Your team listens to the real concerns of young people in the community." 

Funded by

Haringey Youth Summit 2025

13 June 2025

Our Youth Echo programme took centre stage at the Haringey Youth Summit at Tottenham Town Hall last week. The programme aims to amplify the voices of young people to bring about systemic change in the borough.

Hope in Haringey, our partner on the programme, as part of our police engagement, has been delivering workshops in five schools across the borough: Mulberry Academy Woodside, Gladesmore Community School, Harris Academy Tottenham, Park View School, and Dukes Aldridge Academy. These workshops bring together young people and different police teams to help improve police relations with young people.

The event was facilitated by Omar Alleyne-Lawler, Communications and Police Engagement Manager for Hope in Haringey (pictured) and brought together police representatives from the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police, Haringey Youth Engagement sergeants, our partners, the Godwin Lawson Foundation, and NLPC, and schools, Mulberry Academy Woodside, Gladesmore Community School, Harris Academy Tottenham, and Park View School, to understand the impact the Youth Echo programme had had on the relations between young people in Haringey and the police.

The Summit opened with remarks from Nims Obunge of Freedom Ark, a prominent Faith Leader who reminded us:

“The voices of young people are the present, not the future."

He was then followed by a powerful testimony from Ama of People's Action Collective, who spoke passionately about how listening to young people matters, setting the scene for the presentations delivered by pupils from each of the schools, who shared their experiences of the sessions that had been delivered in their school. Schools reported that the young people had found the discussions with the Police informative, felt able to ask challenging questions, and shared that the sessions had helped them gain an understanding of what the Police are doing to keep them safe.

The conversation was then opened up to the floor to explore what they had learnt by taking part in the programme, what was good about their interactions with the police, and what challenges were impacting young people's confidence in the police, from both a young people's perspective, but also the impact the sessions had had on the police teams too. Young people spoke of being too afraid to report crimes, fearing retaliation from gangs, as well as their concerns about crimes not being dealt with properly. Others shared that they not only wanted to see police when things went wrong, but also in the good times, challenging assumptions that they didn't want to engage with the police, which surprised many in the room.

The British Transport Police then shared that they had assumed young people were aware of county lines. However, through these engagement sessions, it became evident that this was not the case, highlighting the importance of these sessions in increasing awareness of county lines to help young people protect themselves. A representative from the Met Police then addressed questions from the floor about stop and search, explaining why it occurs, and responded to a challenging question posed by a young person about the lack of diversity within the police.

Demicah Toussaint, our Head of Safer and Stronger Communities, who oversees the programme delivery, then wrapped up the event by talking about the importance of young people's voices in bringing about change, reiterating Youth Echo programme's commitment to ensuring that young people's voices are heard and help to address systemic change around the programme's four key areas: police, employment, health, and education.

Find out more about the Youth Echo Programme

We especially thank our partners, Hope in Haringey and the Haringey Safer Neighbourhood Board, for their support in delivering these activities and the Youth Summit Event.

" We want the police to listen to us and understand what it’s like growing up in our community, that’s why it’s important to have events like this."