My Lewisham
Creating Safety Through Youth-Led Change
Partisan has been working closely with young people aged 18-25 living in Lewisham, to explore and create safety in the borough.
My Lewisham is funded by the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit and offers a community-led response to violence affecting young people.
It forms part of the Mayor’s flagship, pan-London My Ends programme.
Watch to learn more about My Lewisham, My Ends
With special thanks to all young people who attended the My Lewisham, My Ends Community Impact Weekend 2025, Michael Hamilton, Efficacy CIC and Making Numbers
What we’re doing
Our ‘My Lewisham’ programme puts young people at the centre of change.
Young people in Lewisham have identified safety, in its widest sense, as a central challenge in their community. Not just physical safety, but economic and emotional safety too.
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Marking the legacy of our work matters.
Our My Lewisham journey began with the foundations laid by 2000 Community Action.
We started building trust along with 2000 Community Action at a local cafe in Pepys Estate through sustained conversations with young people who walked through the doors. This soon became a safe space for young people in Lewisham.
Over 2.5 years, 200+ young people in Lewisham engaged in building relationships with our clinical team, and our team supported where needed.
When the space closed and funding ended, relationships remained with Partisan.
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Consortium funding secured (delivery through March 2026), coordinated by consortium leads Power The Fight.
Partisan steps into its first consortium and pooled funding model. We put forward a Participatory Grant Making (PGM)* approach with young people co-designing the next steps of the programme.
Initial work begins with a small, peer-referred group of young people.
Shift in programme design and framing: from “violence” to “safety”, exploring young people’s experiences of harm, protection and belonging based on feedback from group sessions.
*Participatory Grant Making gives local people and communities more say and control over what is funded in their area. Find out more on London Funders.
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A core group of young people start to make decisions about the My Lewisham funding.
Partisan works responsively, learning about how best to engage young people in community decision-making.
Following a pivotal 2-day Community Impact Weekend held in May 2025, 24 young people from Lewisham identify 7 priority areas to build safety in Lewisham:
Housing
Environment & wellbeing, safe spaces & education
Holistic health & creativity
Increased access to mental health & wellbeing support
Focused support for men & women
Creativity and self-expression
Career options and entrepreneurship.
These are seen as integral to contributing to a wider sense of thriving for Lewisham’s communities.
How we work
Our sessions combine group workshops, one-to-one support and collaborative design.
Young people work alongside a team of psychologists and psychotherapists, as well as community practitioners, facilitators and other key individuals they identify as important across their community networks in creating safety.
Our team meets young people where they are: in community spaces that feel familiar and safe.
We operate a trauma-informed model and culturally sensitive approach, which stems from our therapeutic practice.
Projects Created:
Creative Careers Collective: My Lewisham Changemaker, Choukri
Find Your Flow: My Lewisham Changemaker, Millie
Housewarming project: My Lewisham Changemaker, Aaliyah
KJ Krochet: My Lewisham Changemaker, Kyra
Music for the People: My Lewisham Changemakers, Louis and David
Noize Night (now known as Sauti): My Lewisham Changemaker, Dominic
Rhythmic Therapy: My Lewisham Changemaker, Rofeda
Roots to Bloom: My Lewisham Changemaker, Funto
Big Ideas, Real Impact.
Watch the documentary to learn more about My Lewisham, My Ends
Click the link below for the Impact Report
Young people’s testimonials:
“I have lived in the area all of my life and I believe it is better to have people from the area giving suggestions on how we can help improve the area and how we can make it more safe than people that don’t live here.”
- Young person, Lewisham
“My Ends has improved my communication skills. Normally I am not very vocal but being part of the project, I can now give my ideas and I do not need to worry. “
— Young person, Lewisham
Programme Aims & Objectives:
Our particular approach to the ‘My Lewisham’ programme hopes to achieve the following outcomes:
1) Increased self-esteem and self-confidence in young people
2) Increase in adoption of community-led approaches
3) Improved capacity within community-led networks
4) Improved equity in decision making
5) Increased young people participation
Our Strategic Goals:
Through ‘My Lewisham’, our work fits the ambition of our strategic goals:
a) to design alternative help systems alongside Black and racialised communities
b) build capacity within community
c) and redistribute power, knowledge and resources, through a co-design and participatory approach that invests in long-term healing for Black and racialised communities.
Latest news
“I didn’t think I had anything to say. Now I’m part of something, I want to do this outside of this group too.”
My Lewisham delivery team
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Dr Maria Shittu
Project Lead. Clinical and Community Psychologist
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Dr Naima Fowlis
Clinical and Community Psychologist
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Rudo Dube
Trainee Clinical Psychologist
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Dr Ama Hagan
Clinical and Community Psychologist
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Joden Joseph
Community Counsellor and Integrative Psychotherapist
Collaborating for change
Partisan has been working with the Lewisham Consortium partners over the last 2 years, bringing together community expertise from:
Power the Fight (Consortium lead)
Spark2Life
Contextual Safeguarding Network
XLP
The Consortium approach aims to embed previous work and learnings from other London boroughs on the My Ends programme. Learn more on Power the Fight’s website.
