Stefan at the Newsweek event. Photo by Wendy Sloane
By Cydneii Lung’aho & Niamh Hatfield
BEFFTA Award nominee and founder of Stop Our Kids Being Killed On Our Streets (SOKBKOOS), Stefan Brown, lived his life quite normally until his best friend’s son was stabbed in a park at age 12 and died. His killer was just 14.
“It hurt us In such a way, carrying a little coffin, that I said we can’t keep on this track,” Brown said during an interview before a knife crime panel newsweek event at London Metropolitan University.
It was then that Brown gathered his community together in Brixton Park, looking to show local residents the need to “rope in the kids and raise them as a village”.
At the time, Brown was working and didn’t plan to get too involved, but as he did, Stop Our Kids Being Killed On Our Streets was born.
Helping communities affected by violent crime
For the last 20 years, SOKBKOOS has worked to put an end to the senseless violence and killings committed by young people within our communities. Based in London, the non-profit joins up volunteers, professionals and organizations from the statutory and voluntary sectors to form a coalition that provides advice, guidance, engagement, activities and support to young people and families in communities affected by violent crimes.
Running workshops and programs, SOKBKOOS nationally supports schools, parents and children creating awareness around gangs, knife crime, county lines, criminal exploitation and mental health.
Going into schools and estates around the community, Brown has found a lack of education starting at a young age. “In the [primary] schools, when we go, we ask them, ‘How many people do you know who carry a knife?’, every child puts their hand up. ‘How many people do you know who’ve been stabbed?’ Every child puts their hand up. And that’s not how it’s supposed to be.”
In an effort to change the mindsets of those children, SOKBKOOS hosts a trip every year to Clapton-on-Sea for the community. “Three thousand people come in coaches, from all over London, and I see kids who have always been in an estate, actually run in their jeans into the sea. Because they’ve never seen the sea and never actually put their feet in the sea,” Brown says.
“And that makes me cry, because it shows me they’ve only been in that concrete buildings and never seen anything different.”
Stefan interviewed by Cydneii Lung’aho. Video by Niamh Hatfield
Getting government involved
Brown believes knife crime is a disease that people in the government must help communities recover from.
“Scotland Yard and 10 Downing Street, they talk a good talk. They promise the world, but nothing changes,” Brown said in an interview. “The people in the government organisations haven’t got a clue about what’s going on in the streets… They think by throwing money at it and having a little workshop, they’re getting through to the main people, but they’re not, because they’re not going to come to your workshop. I call it getting in the trenches.
“You’ve got to go into the estates, go in and see what they want to do.”
Next steps
The fight against knife crime continues every day, and for Brown and SOKBKOOS, that looks like the development of a play. The play, which would ideally be performed in schools, universities, prisons, and community centres, plans to visually depict the reality and impact of knife crime in communities.
While that’s in the works, the organisation will continue to conduct workshops, go into estates, get guns and knives off the streets, and promote community awareness and care, following their founder’s motto: “It takes a community to build a village.”
Stefan talking to the London Met panel. Photo by Cydneii Lung’aho
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