Stormzy has proudly shown off his new project space #MerkyFC Head Quarters in London - where he will be able to create football, music and gaming projects.
The 30-year-old musician has opened his new creative space in Croydon in a collaboration with Adidas - of whom he is a brand ambassador. The new space includes a full size football pitch as well as music and gaming facilities.
It is aimed as a destination for teenagers to go to hone new skills an collaborate - but will also be open to residents of all ages in the Croydon area. The chart topping star hopes that the new facility can help transform the lives of others and that it will be a beacon of hope to the community.
The new space is something of a youth centre - and Stormzy, whose real name is Michael Omari, hopes that it will help kids stay off the streets and falling in with bad crowds. He is also greatly proud of the new facility which he said he envisioned three years ago.
Opening up to the BBC about the new space, he said: "If you just provide a space, an opportunity or you just light a spark in someone, you don't know where or what that person goes on to be. [Growing up] I had a youth centre where I would go and make music... To me it's about sowing a seed, which sounds like a parable, a bit like a fairytale, but I don't think people understand how powerful it is and how valuable it is."
With knife crime posing a persistent problem in the UK - and which disproportionately affects Black youths - Stormzy hopes he can be one part of the puzzle which will one day end knife violence on the streets. He said: "It's been happening from when we were kids. No-one's really got the answers. Some people say, 'Oh we should open up more youth clubs' or 'We need more stop and search'.
"It's so deep, it's very nuanced and a very intricate issue, and I think a space like this can help. If everyone does their part it solves a big problem. It's something I'm very proud of." This week, 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin was killed in a stabbing attack in Hainault in north east London. The incident saw four other people get injured including two police officers before a suspect was arrested.
Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, said during an LBC radio interview on Wednesday: “The first thing you have to say is for the parents involved, who've lost their 14-year-old, and that is just horrific, and it's everyone's worst nightmare. I'm sure we're all thinking about them." Reports have described Daniel as “quiet” and “nice” and that he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
A family friend told LBC this week: "He was good at his studies. He was good at his sports. Very much loved by many, many people and came from a wonderful family. The family are in shock. Obviously they are very heartbroken. He was such a young boy taken away from his family. It's sad that it's happened in a family, a community, like this. It's heartbreaking.”
Earlier this year, The Ben Kinsella Trust processed statistics to reveal teenagers are twice as likely to be fatally stabbed in 2024 compared to figures from a decade earlier. The charity - set up in memory of knife crime victim Ben Kinsella who died in 2008 aged 16 - revealed 82% of homicides involving teenagers are caused by knife and sharp instruments, and that while overall statistics for knife crime in the UK show cases are down, teens are disproportionately affected by knife crime.
Patrick Green, CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust, said in February: "The persistently high figures for fatal stabbings, and huge rise on figures from 10 years ago, is truly heart-breaking. Let us not forget that these figures represent real people and real lives unnecessarily lost, leaving families devastated and communities torn apart"
While in February 2022 a report by the London Assembly revealed: “Despite making up only 13% of London’s total population, black Londoners account for 45% of London’s knife murder victims, 61% of knife murder perpetrators and 53% of knife crime perpetrators.” The statistics sparked a request for a joint commission by the Mayor of London and the Government to be established to “specifically look at knife crime affecting the black community.” This week, however, London Mayer Sadiq Khan sparked fury when he appeared to undermine knife crime statistics in London, laughing at mayoral candidate Susan Hall for raising concerns about knife crime in the capital as he said she should “stop watching The Wire.” He has also been criticised for refusing to back calls to give frontline police Tasers in order to confront knife wielding criminals.
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