After gathering young people from different churches, Dr Idowu formed ‘Youth Against Crime NOT Crime Against You’ (YACnCAY). The organisation, founded in September 2010, works to reduce gun and knife crime. Its members mentor young people and help them network with professionals and gain work experience. YACnCAY has worked closely with MP Stephen Timms, the Damilola Taylor Trust, and the Mayor of London’s mentoring scheme. Central to all they do is prayer:
‘I remember sitting on my bed and saying, “God, what can I do?” I didn’t want his [Samuel’s] death to be in vain. We talk about prayer and the fact that God says we must pray without ceasing. Ever since December 2010, every month we meet either at church, a youth group or Guys Hospital (in London). We know for a fact that it is only prayer that has kept us going until now. We pray against gun and knife crime in London; we pray that it will just end. When we started, we didn’t expect overnight miracles but God is so good. I don’t remember the figures for the year we started but the following year the numbers of gun and knife crime victims had dropped by half. We were stunned. We continued our prayer because we believe that it is through prayer that God will be directing us [about] whom to go to, who will help us, and who will sponsor us.
‘We pray about everything. For me, life means nothing without prayer. Until these young people realise they need God in their lives and the importance of their faith and prayer, it’s going to be very, very hard for them to make it. We don’t fight against flesh and blood but principalities and powers in the spiritual realm so if we are all crying to God saying we want this [gun and knife crime] to stop and there is a multitude of people praying, then it’s going to stop.
‘I work with someone who says, “when one child dies, there are two kids’ lives that are destroyed - the one who’s died and the one who’s gone to prison.” So we try, when we are mentoring them, to make young people realise what they’re getting themselves into and what prison does to their record. We are trying to make them think…and trying to prevent them from going down that route.’
