young & ambitious
Nathaniel Peat
Founder of The Safety Box
N
athaniel Peat is a man of does the mentality of gangs of The Safety Box programs include
many talents and achieve- young people who instigate the self-defence aspects like how
ments. His most compelling violence, come from? to defend against a knife attack.
trait seems to be his dedication The mentality that originates and What advice or defence skills
to help young people not just rise instigates violence comes from do you give participants if they
above crime, but to make a posi- within. Everyone wants to feel ever face becoming a potential
tive difference in their own lives as powerful, appreciated and worth victim of a gun crime?
well as others in their community. something. By being violent, it The advice I give is to avoid
His organization www.TheSafety- helps a lot of young people who weapons at all costs. However, if
Box.org, seeks to do just that. have no direction in their lives exert faced with a gun, you should run
their authority on others and gives at an angle away from the weapon
Briefly tell our readers exactly them power. This inner inclination on the outside of the hand gripping
what The Safety Box is… is further propagated through the weapon. Even a sharp shooter
The Safety Box is literally what it various violent computer games, would find it extremely difficult to
means – everything inside the box films, music and the warped idea hit a moving target running at an
is designed to help keep young that being bad is somehow good. angle away from the line of fire.
people safe mentally, physically Defence is not the solution; it just
and spiritually. Specifically, it was Is there a portion of any of your gives you a 70% better chance
designed to proactively address organization’s programmes that than if you do not defend.
the growing concerns of anti-social helps to rebuild the confidence
behaviour, low self-esteem, gun of surviving victims of violent You have received words of
and knife crime, alcohol and drugs crime? How does it work? praise by no less than the PM
misuse, bullying, sexual assault, Yes, we normally encourage them himself. Has the government
harassment, negative black to become staff members. So far, taken a more active interest
perceptions and youth wellbeing. we have three victims of crime in being involved or helping
Inside the box we have a number that now work for The Safety Box. promote The Safety Box?
of different life-skill based There is a deep-rooted mental We have received no help from the
programmes, some ranging from aspect to the rebuilding of victims’ government in what we do. They
a full year’s duration down to four confidence and a level of strong listen and they hear, but they don’t
weeks. Others include activity empowerment that really assists in do anything. It’s down to us to
days and hour-long workshops. taking them to a new understand- make a difference.
ing about themselves and others.
If young people carry knives out Working as staff acts as a strong How can our readers become
of fear or for self-defence, where healer on their outlook on life. more involved in The Safety Box
and what do you ultimately want
to see happen over the next five
years with your organization?
We need sponsors; volunteers,
helpers, event managers, youth
workers, music teachers and
sports specialists, and most
importantly, we need readers to
help get our message out. We want
to get into more schools so that
we can affect greater change. The
more young people we can help
the better it would be in the long
run. I would like some of our Safety
Box modules to be included in the
National Curriculum.
We also hope to pull big
businesses into the community our
and sponsor schools by providing
mentors, running various work-
related apprenticeship schemes
and also pay for programmes to
be run in areas of high crime.
To find out information on any of
the programmes listed here, log
ds by Ahmed Sir
or
Young and aMBITIouS
onto www.TheSafetyBox.org
W
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