Archive for November, 2009

Wow, it seems only yesterday that I was asked by the Home Office to come up with an awards event that complimented the work we and other such organisation as ourselves do in and around London and now suddenly the first event itself is almost upon us. It was actually back in July 2008, where has the time gone? We decided on the name because round about the time we were asked to conjure something up we were suffering a terrible epidemic of young people being killed on our streets especially to knife crime. It was heart breaking and clearly much needed doing to put a stop to it. We decided to apply lateral thinking and create a generic awards project that could bring all 33 Boroughs and organisations such as the Damilola Taylor Trust together.

The name of the awards comes from a speech made by our great War time Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who made reference to the fact that try as they might the Nazis were never able to bomb St Pauls Cathedral – The “Spirit of London will always prevail” he said. Through famine, plague, fire and of course a blitz from the skies, this has indeed always been the case. This proud old city of ours has always pulled though and so it was with this in mind that the name for the awards was born. The heartbeat of any City is its people and the people of London have always historically pulled together when things have not been going well. We felt that “The Spirit of London Awards” was befitting of what we were trying to achieve.

The Spirit of London Awards is a project that has been set up to try and break the mould of negativity attached to young people by the media. It far too often gets overlooked that the vast majority of our young people are good positive role models who aspire to achieve great things in their lives. The small feral minority unfortunately tend to get most of the media headlines and we as an organisation have had enough of this and we think most local communities have as well.

We set up the Spirit of London Awards to celebrate positivity and acclaim those that seek to be good upstanding citizens within their own communities and an inspiration to their peers. I am very proud now that out of 3,000 young people that were nominated from various sources we have managed to short list 23 outstanding individuals and groups of young people from which our inaugural 7 winners will be chosen. I have to add that all 23 will be treated like kings and queens on the night so are all effectively “winners” already. Like with the “oscars” in Hollywood it is not all about the winning it is about the being good enough to get the recognition and be there on the night! The inaugural show is being staged at Alexandra Palace and one of the reasons I am writing this blog is so that I can point out that the show is all about the young people nominated and the young ambassadors from the 33 Boroughs of London who have been selected to attend. It is their night and everything taking place is in their honour. The event is being staged at great cost which of course has not been easy to achieve in this recession we are all suffering from. Next Year we plan to have a far more inclusive event but for this inaugural Year we have had to organise it to cater as much for the young people as possible and this means it is not an open ticket event. We have been inundated with requests for tickets especially since the performers have been announced. Unfortunately the cost of the event is such that we had to have a structure and then stick to it otherwise it might not have happened at all. I am really pleased to say though that it is to be shown “AS LIVE” on the young peoples social network site BEBO and that a TV documentary is being made that will be shown at a later date.

We will also shortly be announcing how the SOLA FOUNDATION is to be set up as a benefitial extension to the goals and objectives of the Damilola Taylor Trust. Giving options and opportunities to the positive young people of our inner city areas helps them reach out to touch their own dreams they aspire so much to achieve. We must do all we can to support them in their quest. How else can The Spirit of London prevail?

Gary Trowsdale, SOLA Executive Director