SPOTLIGHT.

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’We were advised from police within council meetings to not go ahead with the cross border initiative, the police claimed that reprisal attacks were predicted and "a summer of bloodshed between both estates” was a definite’. With this in mind, Justin felt that sitting back and waiting for that ‘predicted bloodshed’ was not an option. He continued to engage elders on the differing estates and he received assurances from high-level elders that they would refer people to the project who were ready to work together and broker a truce. 20 young people from both estates worked together unknowingly for 2 weeks, ‘We would create beats with both sets of young people and they play that music to the opposite side but claim that M.O made it earlier. Both sides would take music from the opposite side unknowingly and record their own songs to the beats. After 2 weeks of recording music, when the young people were ‘married’ to the music we revealed that the music was created by the opposite side.

Both sides would look at us with suspicion but then we explained that the opposite side was ready to work with them if they wanted to work on the same level and create a peaceful solution moving forward. Both sides agreed! We took 40 young people together to record music. Even when the session ended they all pleaded for the session to keep going! I returned the findings back to the council and asked for the programme to be funded for longer so we could work throughout wider neighbourhoods with the same problems. The police confirmed that we were working with some of the same people who they deemed ‘gang members’. The council were happy with the findings but made it clear that this impending thing called ‘austerity’ meant the council had to slash their social spending by half. The first thing to be slashed was youth services. My sector.

Fast forward to 2018 the 2nd of January and irony visited Justin and his family when Justin’s own son was stabbed 11X in a vicious attack which left him fighting for his life. ‘When I received the call I was in total shock, I literally couldn’t physically move. I called my younger brother to tell him about the ordeal and he asked me what was I doing? Staring into nothingness I said nothing,' "Justin, put on your clothes, get ready and meet me at the hospital." Lifeless as his son, Justin drove from Bristol to St Mary's with the same heavy spirit that many parents were unfortunately accustomed to in 2018. Justin's' son pulled through a horrific knife attack. ‘He was walking through an estate, bringing his younger cousin to a train station so he could get home. This was after New Years and his cousin had to get back home.

They realised they were being followed by a masked gang and ran as the masked men gave chase. My son ran into a dead end and was cornered by the masked assailants pleading for his life. They all agreed that they didn’t recognise my son but one of them announced ‘but we have come too far’ and the attack took place. They ran off leaving Justin’s son Rico to fight for his life. Rico dragged himself to a door and knocked on it, a young woman ran out screaming for help. Her uncle knew life-saving techniques and applied towels to Rico’s wounds and called an ambulance. ‘If Rico had stood up, he would have died because the leg wound was similar to Damilola Taylors’.

After months of rehabilitation, Rico made a full physical recovery. A month later Justin's bus was arson attacked and burnt to the ground! ‘You just couldn’t make it up!’ Said Justin ‘But with my son pulling through a life and death situation and with what the family had to go through dealing with that, I just felt like this act would define me.’ Justin would go onto win a LEAP award the following month for services to young people, during his tearful acceptance speech Justin was approached by an investment group called Meriam, ’they offered to be a new and better bus! I couldn’t believe it, this was the start our charity desperately needed.’ The end of 2018 saw a new chapter in United Borders journey, They secured a partnership with music giants SONOS, Justin had a showdown on GMB with none other than Piers Morgan, met Sayce Holmes-Lewis CEO of youth organisation, Mentivity on the Victoria Derbyshire show. With the two strikings up a friendship, they took 20 young people to Cornwall for a joint programme called ‘City to sea’ to surf, take part in sports and create sounds.

United Borders would continue to serve throughout Brent that year, filming their young people on channel 4 doing yoga with music mogul Goldie, a graduation event in the Houses of Parliament, fundraising, creating new workshops in fitness and fashion 2019 finished strongly for Justin and the charity. "Every Crisis brings an opportunity” 'Einstein declared this and it resonates with me. If James hadn’t been killed then I doubt I would be doing what I am doing now. As far as being a useful advocate for the community I have always been that, I helped with Akala’s career and Nines, I wrote Ms Dynamites first music video from her debut album ‘It takes more’ and this was without a background in music but the crisis was her not liking the scripts proposed, me declaring I could do better, her giving me a pad and pen was the opportunity, the rest is history!’

'Music has always been a constant in my life so naturally my charity would be centred around music and mentoring. Covid meant that we had to move our services to an online platform, this has allowed us to still offer a service if things are locked down, every crisis….’

Today United Borders offers podcasting, fashion courses, gaming communities and more. Working with schools, council and other agencies It seems Justin is just getting started.

'Throughout my working life, I have been driven to work with young people from my local community or similar communities. I grew up in an area of North West London labelled as notorious, high-risk, dangerous, failing its young people. Growing into the adult I am today I have seen, and continue to see, young people, dealing with the same challenges that we had, while at the same time facing a decrease in opportunities and a significant decline in services and investment. We do not judge young people and we do not judge their frame of reference. We look for ways to help them navigate societal and life issues. All journeys begin with a one-step…. Or a bus.’