I got the best phone call last night . . .

"Hi Cameron, wanna come out for a bit crack?"
It's always pleasant to be invited out for a chat with mates - but this invitation wasn't from a fellow 40+ year old to discuss 40+ year old's stuff.  It was from a group of 16-18 year old lads who wanted to chat about what they can do to provide stuff for themselves and their contemporaries to do.

After 10 minutes of sitting on a step I began to see their point.  Actually, I wasn't sitting on a step.  There wasn't room.  Me and a couple of others had to squat on the street, whle others stayed straddling their bikes.
In Langley Park there isn't even anywhere for people to sit down!

The specific ideas the lads had was to set up a Martial Arts Class and a Rave at the local WMC.

Being a 40+ year old, I couldn't help be terrified by the idea of a Rave - ecstacy, dehydration, all night music, death . . .  All the stuff that was in the press when raves first started a couple of decades ago.
But to a 16 year old a Rave is just what we used to call a disco in the early 80s.
Us adults must not prejudice a young person's language with our misunderstanding.

The things they needed to make it happen was basically a letter to the "committee" and a room hire desposit.  Easy things for a 40+ year old to put together.  They could provide the music, the gear, the djs the everything else . . .
So we'll be getting together to do some more detailed planning.

They had even more experience of what is required to run a Martial Arts Class  - so I'm not sure exactly what I can do to help them wiith that except encourage and support them.

Sure there was a lot of smoking and swearing - but have you ever met with senior officials in a Local Authority? 

Us adults must be very aware of hypocrisy when judging the behaviour of young people.

So our Young People are "engaging".  They're even talking of getting the younger ones sorted out - of breaking the cycle - of being role models.

This is exciting news - cos these ain't graduates of Boy Scouts.  These are the lads that you would shy away from if you saw them coming towards you.

But they rang me.  They wanted a bit crack - with me.

It was the best phone call - and a very important night for Langley Park