Quiet Storm founder in move to help disadvantaged youth

By Ben Bold, brandrepublic.com, Monday, 11 August 2008 09:30AM

LONDON - Quiet Storm founder Trevor Robinson has launched an initiative to persuade young Londoners to tap into their creativity rather than become embroiled in gang culture.

The 'Create Not Hate' programme has been set up to bring troubled youths into contact with members of London's creative industries.

The scheme will link young people with creative mentors such as Robinson. In addition to the backing of the advertising and production firm, where Robinson is creative director, Lambeth Academy and The Institute of Creative Arts are also involved in the initiative.

Quiet Storm creative director Cat Campbell is also working on the initiative and oversaw a number of creative workshops at Lambeth Academy. She said that plans are afoot to broaden out the scheme into other creative sectors, including fashion and architecture, which will see students participate in projects such as designing "neutral" hoodies and redesigning the housing estates they were brought up in.

'Create Not Hate' launches on August 20 with a pilot film called 'A Mother's Tear', which will be shown at Soho House in London. The film was written by Lambeth teenagers Jaron Williams and Alimur Rahan and directed by Robinson and young director Dennis Gyamfi, who left a Brixton gang to pursue a career in directing.

One hundred teenagers at Lambeth Academy were involved in the 'Tackling Gun Crime Creatively' competition, with 20 finalists taking part in workshops.

Robinson's scheme is similar to The Ideas Foundation, which was set up by WCRS founder Robin Wight and recently launched a Mentor's Council to increase support for its creativity scholarships for disadvantaged young people.

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com