Need some help? Why not ask Redbridge youth offenders?

Amanda Nunn

Published: 10:17 AM July 8, 2013 Updated: 8:53 AM December 1, 2020

Young offenders feature Memebers of the young offenders with spray painting they did at the local community centre with their young offenders support worker, the owner of the community centre and the artist who helped them create their work. - Credit: Archant

Working with young offenders is rewarding and more people should consider getting them involved in projects, is the message of one artist.

Matt Ryan, 36, a contemporary artist, of Walthamstow, who specialises in spray paint art and illustrations, worked with the young offenders over a week.

They created a design for the walls of the Clementswood Community Centre, Connaught Road, Ilford, before transferring their design to the walls.

Matt said: “It’s easy to always take on the gifted kids and just run things for them, but you don’t get such as much of a reward which you get by helping people who really need it.”

He said he has been running workshops for the past two decades and that people just need to get over their initial reservations about working with offenders.

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In addition to painting the outside of the centre, the team also gave the hall a fresh coat of paint.

Wilson Chowdhry, 39, from the centre, said: “The young people participating on this project completely transformed our community centre and users of the premises have commented on how salubrious the hall environment has become.”