A visit from the Mayor!

The Harrow Club was honoured to welcome the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and two Watford FC players, Andre Gray and Daniel Philips to the Harrow Club on Tuesday 4th Feb. The visit was filmed and aired by the BBC London’s Lunchtime News Piece on Thursday 6th February, as well as BBC Radio 4.

The Harrow Club was chosen out of all youth groups funded by the Mayor’s Young Londoners Fund for the Mayor’s visit due to the unique and cutting-edge nature of our Another Way violence reduction project. This project, funded by the Mayor’s Young Londoners Fund, runs from 10pm to 2am two nights a week and works with young people currently involved in or at risk of being involved in gang-related activities, providing a safe space, mentoring programmes and pathways to employment.

The Mayor spoke with our Another Way attendees about the importance of the project before participating in a friendly race to fix a go-kart tyre, one element of the motor maintenance course taught to our young people. The Mayor then spoke with our Juniors who had prepared a communal meal of spaghetti bolognese as part of our Cooking Project, before watching a drama performance involving our Seniors about the impacts of knife crime on families in the local community. The Mayor finished his visit with a round table discussion about youth crime and the crucial role our Another Way project plays in supporting young people to find alternative routes. This discussion included our CEO, Michael Defoe, our Another Way Project Leader, Nekisha da Costa, as well as three Another Way attendees and parents. The day ended with our under 10s football team playing with Andre Gray and Daniel Philips from Watford FC; a huge delight for all.