A Forest Hill filmmaker has spoken out about how gang violence impacted her life growing up.

Alisha Mitchel, 21, has created a film showing the effects of gang life on families to warn young people about the consequences of getting involved with crime.

The film is from the perspective of a member’s mum, dad, sister and friend, and based on Alisha’s experience of seeing a friend get caught up in gang culture when he was just 11.

Alisha said: “I knew someone who got involved in a gang when they were 11,’ she says.

 “It all began when he started secondary school. He went from being the oldest to the youngest in school and I think that made him vulnerable and easy to manipulate.

 “His behaviour started to change - he was out late all the time and his family didn’t know where he was.

“He was getting into fights and one of my friends saw him in New Cross with a group of boys who were a lot older than him.

 “He eventually ended up getting kicked out of school and had to go to a different one.

 “His sister found a knife in his bag and told his mum. Social services got involved and he started working with an organisation which helps young people in gangs.

“He got to talk to older people who had been in gangs and they told him what the repercussions had been for them and offered him support.

 “He managed to get out of the gang and he's doing a lot better now, but there are still families in that situation.”

News Shopper:

 Alisha hopes to show the film in primary schools to warn young people about the dangers of gang crime.

“Whenever anyone thinks about gangs they think of how the person directly involved is affected, but their friends and family members really suffer too.

“I hope it helps them with the transitioning process and shows them that they don’t have to be forced into gang crime.”

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The film was organised with the help of Fixers and L&Q housing association – which owns or manages more than 71,000 homes across London and the South East and funded the project through the L&Q Foundation.

Fixers works with young people aged 16-25 across the UK by providing them with resources to help them campaign on issues they feel strongly about.

The charity has helped more than 19,000 youngsters across the UK to have a voice in their community on issues such as cyber-bullying, self-harm, suicide or transphobia.

For more information or to make a donation to fund more Fixer projects, visit www.fixers.org.uk