Articles


From hostility to hope. A snapshot in time
We were two youth workers who were sent into a small estate in East London for four sessions a week, over the course of a year. At one stage, the police refused to patrol the streets—and we were supposed to


Why can’t some areas attract funding to support young people?
Over the past 20 years, LifeLine has been working with local people in a range of settings. We began in outer London boroughs with statistics you’d be more likely to find in inner London. Now we have reach across east

On parenting and the Ghanian diaspora
On the evening of Sunday, 21st June, LifeLine Projects held an online gathering for parents from the Ghanaian diaspora. We had around 35 parents on the Zoom call, mainly from communities across London, but also a few from further abroad,
How we’re looking after ourselves in lockdown
We’re still potentially a long way from returning to our previous way of life, and it’s crucial that we stay healthly – both physically and mentally – during this trying time. We’ve asked our teams to let us know what


What we’ve learnt from lockdown
Lifeline’s youth work team—collectively known as SW!TCH—works with young people who are at risk of being excluded from mainstream schooling, of having poor mental health, or of being involved in Serious Youth Violence. Traditionally, this takes place both in schools


Our tips for outreach and detached work
Daniel Chery, one of the managers of our SW!TCH team, has pulled together his top tips for outreach and detached working. Always work in pairs Ensure you have a current and updated risk assessment Dynamically assess a situation before approaching


Youth work: averting an oncoming crisis
As we pass our 90th day in lockdown and the government has started to ease restrictions, our youth team – still out and about supporting young people – have started to observe a growing number of young people back out


Fighting loneliness in lockdown
We approach the end of our second month in lockdown, and maybe the end is now in sight. However, the road back to our old way of working is still a long one, and many restrictions will still have to
Community: the antidote to COVID-19 isolation
Dear friends and partners across the statutory, voluntary, community and faith sectors, As the coronavirus crisis and lockdown continues, and our daily patterns of work have settled into a new norm, there are many positive things to take from what


A call to outer-London boroughs: wake up to the danger of serious youth violence!
We’ve all seen the newspaper articles. The shock story about another young person whose life has been brought to an untimely end. At LifeLine, we’ve had to come to terms with the news that some of the young people on