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Safehouse LDN

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Alex + April

Alex + April

WORDS BY VICTOR DAVIES

BISOLA POPOOLA.

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What is Safehouse?

To put it in a couple of sentences, the aim of Safehouse is to touch on the social class ideologies in working class communities. We want to shift that narrative to bring about positive change with opportunities that in my day would not have been present. The idea is to connect the dots between local people, emerging/high profile talent and offer opportunities within workshops, sessions, mentoring and so many different multi-dimensional events that bring young people to multiple safe spaces. With this we can make generational leaders from people that are well and truly deserving of it, rather than go down routes that they are usually convicted for.

What are the stand out projects that you have worked on?

I would say one of our very first projects was the collaboration with Hackney Empire, which was a very big thing for me because I used to go there growing up. We did a talk and among the speakers were a few of my very good friends - Ghetts, Femi, and people that I grew up with; a guy called Babs and a girl called Ashleigh. Growing up where I grew up I had the blessing of meeting amazing people who are really sick at what they do. I wanted to bring everyone together and just highlight them and almost allow them to share their knowledge and give it to young people who are well and truly deserving but don’t know how to connect the dots. That event was based around filming, acting, music and it was a chance for the speakers to briefly tell their story. At the end, Femi was offering casting opportunities for young people. It was a nice intimate crowd.

Another one of my favourites would have to be the Christmas Present Drive - we’ve done two so far and we’re going to do a third one this year. I was inspired when I was an intern way back when! I was dropping gifts off to agencies and I would watch all the designs wrapped up beautifully. One delivery was very tight - my birthday is on the 21st December so I remember Christmas was getting close - it may have been one of the last days in the office. I also remember thinking that half of these won’t even get to where they need to be. Some may do in January but these were gifts that would be sent to people who already had the money they need. I just started to think about some of the ways that people would react to certain gifts. Some were very appreciative whilst other would say they didn’t really like things or ask to have something else. It was wrong and I didn’t get it. When I was growing up my family didn’t actually celebrate Christmas because it isn’t really a

thing in Nigerian culture, in my family anyway. My aunt that introduced it to us, not even too long ago, we’re talking maybe 10 years. She started off with a turkey and then we started with presents but more time it was for my younger brother anyway. I wanted to share that selfless giving and bringing the community together around Christmas. Everyone is always in a good mood in December for some reason, well we get why. I just wanted a space where I could be able to give present freely and thought how can I do it? We did call-outs to the five or six different agencies I had worked at, as well as my friends and they would donate presents. Myself and my team would wrap them up and then we would do an open day where people would drop by, have food and everyone would leave with a present. There would be competitions that would happen and we got a few local companies to help. Slider Cuts did a few haircuts for some of the boys. It was just creating an idea of selfless giving and putting a smile on young people’s faces just before Christmas. That is definitely my favourite one to do. I have loved every single project that we have done. The last one was the Ride and Dine event which we did last year.That was a collaboration with one of my really good friends called Temi. We did a crazy bike ride from here to Lagos. A few boats were included in there but the majority of it was a bike ride. He had an amazing, incredible and inspiring young story and I think a lot of young people could relate to him. He was incarcerated and he came out of the other end. He’s doing so many great things and he’s such a positive guy. You would be surprised how much he’s gone through. That whole idea of collaborating with people who I’ve grown up with and respect highly, I felt that young people would definitely respect him. It’s quite nice to see that a lot

more people are getting on their bikes now. That was a really great one. We want to explore a whole social club, not just restricted to the creative industry.

We started there because that is where a lot of my background is in but as myself and my team are growing, we are looking to explore as many areas that affect people in communities. Being rooted in here, it feels like the right thing to do. I don’t feel like an outsider who is trying to look in and figure things out. I feel that for once I’m in a place where I feel comfortable doing these things. In the industry sometimes I felt like an outsider. It was all leading me to where I am now, to start doing this and now I think to myself, two years down the line, I can’t wait to see what the next two or four or six or ten look like!

Tell me how Safehouse began and your journey to date.

I started Safehouse in 2018. At the time I was still working in fashion and music PR. I was almost swaying into consultancy. I guess one of the main parts of my job I love is watching seeds grow, whether that be projects or people. I like to start at the grass roots and watch things beautifully transpire. I’ve lived in Hackney all my life. My family are Nigerian and my Dad and his family have always been rooted in giving back. As a young girl I suppose I watched him. He would have many conversations with his friends and family, as well as my Mum. They’re both first generation in the U.K. and they were the ones who were always having to help their families back in Nigeria or America, wherever they lived. I guess watching them, I was really inspired by how they operate and how they move. I spent a lot of time in my teenage years hanging around the square that was local to me; we had water fights or we would go to adventure playgrounds. In the summer we would go to the youth club and there would be all these different activities for us to do. We would stay up and hang out on the famous wall that’s outside my house. We would sing, dance and watch videos. We would go to each other’s houses and watch the awards because that was the only time we knew we could catch music. It was super super exclusive when we were growing up. We would watch things like Nickelodeon, Disney, Trouble and all those channels. If you missed it you missed it. We spent time just being around each other. It was a mixture of about 16 boys and girls who used to roll together. I really felt like I leaned towards the males. That’s not to say that I wasn’t interested in the females but with females we usually learn to manage and deal with things. Boys trap a lot of things inside themselves. It’s not to say that I don’t go through things or my female friends don’t either but

we’re a lot more likely to talk to each other about things whereas guys, they don’t - or the ones I grew up with didn’t really. I think I used to try and read people and the easiest way to put it is that someone may have said something to me and laughed about it but I knew deep down that they’re probably going through some shit. All these things started to piece together.

I got to a point after working for about 10 years in the fashion industry and thought, what am I doing and who am I helping? I was blessed enough to do many many things that a lot of people in my area wouldn’t have been able to do but I thought, I’m coming back here. At a point it just wasn’t fulfilling me, it was very superficial and it wasn’t enough. Aside from that I worked with a group of young people from church and my brothers were present at a gathering. We had little gathering’s where we would talk through our weeks and things like that. One of the young boys who just turned 16 said his friends were starting to dabble into drugs and stuff. That hurt my chest especially knowing that my little brother was sitting in on that conversation. The next morning the idea for Safehouse just started to make its way to me and then here we are almost two years down the line. We’ve done five projects so far and we’re just waiting for lockdown to ease up so we can get back to it.

It’s great that you have been able to take your experiences both positive and negative to make a difference in the lives of others. In terms of funding, how does that work because I know that these projects need money and it would be great for people to read this and find out how they can help.

At the moment, everyone, including myself, volunteers so to speak, just while we get things set up to be a charitable incorporated organisation. No one is currently being paid for anything. All of our donations have come through friends and family, amazing people in my church. At the moment we have a restricted account which everything goes into. I don’t know how it’s happened but we have always happened to just have enough for everything that we’ve done. The way I envision it doesn’t always match what we do but I know we have to start from somewhere and I’m very grateful for where we have started. I’m a firm believer in the idea that time is precious and I don’t see why people should feel a type of way that they are paid for doing good for others. That is more of an important reason to pay other people. Everybody says that money isn’t important and I agree in that sense but money is necessary for things to be paid for. Also it helps removes stresses and unnecessary aggravations so you can focus on the job. If you know you haven’t got to worry about a bill at the end of the month then you can work on amazing projects and if you can help people, then your mood is immediately different. You do need money to be able to pay for things that you need so that you don’t feel stressed. We decided to start a GoFundMe and we have almost reached half of our goal, which is great. That will at least cover our venue hire for now until the end of the year. It also generates expenses for hospitality, resources and equipment for things that we need to make it look aesthetically pleasing because once again quality is very important to myself and my team. Also just things like our website, our social media, all these things that we forget need to be paid for. Within registration, there are things that need to be paid for within that. We’ll have that until we’re able to get to a point where we can cover a wage and then fully commit ourselves to it but until then our GoFundMe is our point of call for donations.

Is there anything else that is important to your journey that you think people should know?

You do feel a little bit crazy, like who do you think you are and do you think you can save the world? All that kind of stuff runs through your mind. I thought that it was better to create some small part of action whether it’s a small part in my community than do nothing at all. What you see is that the response is quite fickle in the beginning but it’s amazing to see how it’s taken this amount of time for people to recognise the value of young people and our communities, this whole conscious awakening is a big thing for me. It’s never too late to support and I think sometimes we find it hard to support people around us. There is no cap or measure to what that might be whether it be a share on your socials, either reaching out to particular people or using your initiative to think of ways to support people.

 safehouse.ldn safehouseldn.com

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