Credible Messengers
How to steer hard-to-reach young people away from crime
For many years, André Platteel, together with the Biography Foundation, has been committed to helping young people who are at risk of slipping into serious crime. To punish and imprison them? He doesn’t believe in it. Since the start of the project, sixty young people have been trained to reach out to such young people, many of whom, often elude social workers. What matters: some of these sixty, have a criminal past themselves.
Platteel was raised in a poor neighbourhood where violence was common. His uncles where not exactly saints. He witnessed the devastating effect this had on his cousins. ‘From an early age, kids in that kind of situation believe they are worthless. They do everything they can to ensure their survival. They become disappointed and hardened. Drift off course when there is no one to support them. And are eventually seen only as a problem.’
Kaoutar
Finally, I know I deserve to be here
‘When I was sentenced to a year in prison, I felt the ground swallow me up. I thought: that’s it. Every day I was locked up in this silence, alone with my own thoughts. I wondered: why do I keep making the wrong choices – theft, burglary and drug smuggling?
I saw myself leaving home as a 14-year-old girl again, never to return. I could feel the punishments and beatings from those days. And I could hear my mother screaming: “You should never have been born. You’re a disgrace and a failure!” Then suddenly I realised that these words accompanied me everywhere I went. I behaved as though I wasn’t worthy of living, that I had no right to exist. Suddenly, I became highly aware of my own thoughts and potential.
Today, I am to others, the person I myself so desperately needed in the past. As a credible messenger, I inspire young people to not go astray. And I know the things they are going through, because of the shit I have been through myself. Being able to help them, is the most rewarding part. This is what gives me a sense of gratitude and pride. I have managed to find the purpose of my existence.’
Street language
It is difficult for mainstream youth work to reach this group. However, there are people who do succeed, observes Platteel. ‘For example, people who themselves were once involved in crime, but who have managed to overcome their situation. They are the very people who realise when someone in the neighbourhood is at risk of slipping into crime. Often, they know the family, they speak the language of the streets and will take such a young person under their wing.’ Platteel commissioned research into what made the difference. ‘This revealed all sorts of characteristics that the youth work system is unable to meet. For example, being available at all times. And establishing yourself as a brother or a father.’
A dead-end
Armed with these insights, Platteel developed a training course for people who have experienced this themselves and therefore have the credibility to protect other youths from a dead-end path. These so-called Credible Messengers learn to recognise destructive patterns of behaviour in young people and what could trigger them. As well as how to build a trusting relationship with them when profound disappointments have damaged their lives. How to apply the knowledge gained through formal and informal networks in the neighbourhood, to engage with and support these young people. As well as how to identify their talents and bring them to fruition.
Sixty trained people
Since then, sixty Credible Messengers have been trained. Together they form the Adamas network. They work closely together with Actiecentrum Veiligheid en Zorg (Action Centre for Security and Care, (AcVZ) of the City of Amsterdam. The Adamas network is often consulted by juvenile institutions and forensic organisations. As well as anxious relatives and schools where firearms possession and violence occur.
Unprecedented difference
Every day, Platteel witnesses the benefits that stability, security and confidence have for young people’s lives. This is where the ‘home base’ with its sports, cooking and music studios plays an important role. ‘We acquire a lot of information about their environment and about what is happening in their lives by doing creative work with them. Yesterday, for example, I heard one boy come up with a rap about how the streets keep him trapped. Heartbreaking! This was a cry for help that would otherwise remain unheard. I asked him: if you added a verse to it about where you’ll be in five years, what would it say? That small move can make an unprecedented difference.’