Faced with the high crime rate of his local community, an estate in Hackney, East London, 16 year old Wacky Rymel grabbed an opportunity with two hands. Dancing since the age of 6, Wacky felt that much of the gun and knife crime that plagued his area stemmed from the lack of activities or alternative outlets for young people in his area. When a competition ‘Good 4 The Hood’ was launched by the music channel MTV, asking for young people to send in their ideas for improving their neighbourhoods, a panel picked Wacky’s inspiring and innovative idea out of hundreds. Wacky, now armed with the necessary funds, launched free classes teaching Diversity-style dance to his fellow young people. Wacky was provided with audio equipment, outfits and further funding to secure a venue for the next 6 months.
Part of the UK’s government’s £100m invested into the Youth Crime Action Plan to tackle youth crime through support, intervention and prevention, Wacky demonstrated that combining your passion with raw initiative can result in real changes in our communities. Instead of being passive and allowing his local authorities to tackle community issues, Wacky took matters into his own hands and proved you don’t need an office or an internationally recognised logo to affect your surroundings.
Since winning the competition with his initial classes, Wacky has coordinated a range of youth-crime related dance ventures including taking his ‘Beat The Streets’ campaign to the National Dance Challenge finals in 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzgc7EFHwDw
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