Profile: Rebecca has just graduated from Oxford University and began working for TELCO (The East London Communities Organisation). She stimulates discussion among people to find out ways of tackling youth violence in Hackney, East London. She is a doer, and has organised big meetings to get decision makers in politics and business to contribute and commit to the CitySafe Campaign. Rebecca gets people together to make a real difference.
Rebecca Recommends:
Book: “Tess of the D’urbervilles” – Thomas Hardy
Song: “Bad” – Michael Jackson
Film: Gran Torino
Most Interesting Answer:
What problem would you like to see solved before you die?
I think maybe attitudes towards homelessness and homeless people. Particularly in Oxford, people would just class anyone in the street as a drug-addict or alcoholic and therefore not worth knowing or speaking to or associating with. But they should realise that everyone has their problems: some people deal with it, some people can’t deal with it. Sometimes people end up on the streets and it’s not always through choice. They don’t wake up one day and say, “I’m gonna become a homeless person and yeah, just drink because that’s exactly what I want to do, that’s my ambition.” Obviously people love having other people around them, having a home, having some kind of income. So I think if before I die if people thought more about why people are homeless rather than just class them as homeless and therefore unworthy, that would be a good thing.
