Photos from the After the Riots conference, 21st January 2012

Headlines from the day include:

• A clear commitment that we need to avoid repetition of these events, but uncertainty of how to achieve this
• A sense of disengagement of children and young people, sometimes from families, sometimes from education, sometimes from the police, sometime from politicians
•  Parents wanting to support children and young people, but may also need support themselves in order to do this.  
• Low expectations of children and young people combined with limited ambitions and a lack of career opportunities.
• Labelling of children and young people persists.
• A group of young people together do not always equal a gang
• Education, schools, colleges need to have a wider role in promoting ambition and aspirations in young people.
• We need to remember that faith groups already provide a range of activities and support to young people.
• A variety of reasons why people got involved in the riots.  Some of this was about protest and disenchantment, but some there was also greed, stupidity and loss of morality.
• Overwhelming support for a public enquiry to help better understand the causes of the disturbances August 2011.
• The persistence race inequality appears to be one of the features of the riots.
• The persistence of inequality may have had a particular impact on African Caribbean communities.
• Who was providing leadership was a key question as was where the leaders of the future would come from.

The Foundation will be producing a more detailed summary as well as video of the event.  We will are discussing with our partners how issues raised on the day are addressed.