Charity provides free street dance sessions to steer youngsters away from knife crime and anti-social behaviour in Milton Keynes

A charity is running free sessions in street dancing in MK to give young people the confidence to say no to knife crime and gangs.

The UDOIT Dance Foundation’s programme is funded by the Youth Justice Sports Fund/Street Games and takes youngsters between the ages of 10 and 17.

The charity has been delivering sessions all arounds schools and in communities in Milton Keynes over the past few weeks and these have already received great feedback from the community, parents, teachers and students.

Spokesman Nadia Wedderburn said: "As well as teaching amazing street dance lessons, we have developed powerful interventions which link Street dance together with ConfiDance, I AM Mental Health Movement, Knife Crime and Anti Social Behaviour.

"Our aim is to make dance accessible for all and to empower, engage and inspire the people we work with. We are very passionate that there should be no affordability barriers to stop people from participating in dance as it is such a powerful tool that can help and develop people in so many ways.”

UDOIT has just completed six weeks of working at the YMCA, delivering it Confidence dance programme to young people every Thursday after school.

“It's been such a joy working with these kids over the past few weeks to really see their confidence develop each session they came to and they have all felt it has benefitted them in many way,” said Natalie.

"We just wanted to put out there all the work that we have been doing that has benefitted young people in the community and how much of a great impact it has had on those kids."

The charity is now opening this opportunity across MK and is creating referral pathways to organisations and agencies to suggest young people that they feel would benefit from the sessions.

It aims to educate young people on the different types of anti-social behaviour/ crime and the impacts it can have on their community, while using street dance as a tool to build essential skills such as teamwork, positive communication, respect, confidence, and self-esteem.

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