The Word On The Street…

Welcome to the very first blog from the United Estates.

The United Estates of Wythenshawe,to give us our full title, started out in 1996 when local leading families form the Wythenshawe estate came together to prevent an old and vandalised Methodist Chapel from closing its doors for good. Concerned about inadequate youth provision and the increasingly prevalent appearance of youth gang culture in Wythenshawe – we decided to do something about it…

That’s the first bit of the UEW Story. Before I continue let me explain ‘leadership’. If I ask you who the leaders are in your area, what would you answer?

30 years ago I think we would have sited local councilors, perhaps the MP, the local community bobby or schoolteachers – even your friends’ parents as local figures of respect; local leaders – but sadly not today. Local police get no respect on the streets of this estate, we work with local schoolteachers who, with no hint of irony will tell me that verbal abuse from 9 year old’s is “Just part of the working day!” That physical abuse from children as young as 8 or 9 again is “Just part of the working day…” And as for the local MP… Who’s she again?

Back in 1996 the real leaders on the Wythenshawe estate were people like local boxing coaches, football coaches, the local pub landlord, the bloke who ran the taxi business, the nightclub doorman, the man who ran the local security agency – real leaders.

Most importantly these were the people who had excellent lines of communication with the real hard to reach youth of the area.

In 1996 we identified these real leaders; formed a management team giving us access to the most difficult, troublesome, and in some cases out of control young people of the estate. Working as a partnership we completely refurbished the old Chapel and in doing so created one of the biggest, most exciting and totally unique community enterprises in the country. United Estates was born

Remarkably the culture that so nearly killed the Chapel is the same culture that has breathed life and given the building its heart beat back.

In the upcoming blogs we will be outlining some of the inner city problems we have faced and are still up against today and the real practical solutions we have found to work in Wythenshawe – we work with inner city experts; inner city leaders, real role models and mentors – We have turned the energy found in gang culture in to positive social enterprise, we believe just one person can change everything – we are the United Estates of Wythenshawe.