Our Project
What we do
Shopping with Clime-it Brothers is unique and provides a totally different experience to shopping with any other fashion retailer. How? Because with every purchase made with us, the equivalent amount of minutes’ worth of training is created for a young person in need of some positive guidance. This scheme was created in January 2016 by Founder of Clime-It Brothers Mubarak Mohamud and is appropriately named “Training Currency”.
How it all began
The importance of helping young people in the process of breaking habits of re-offending has been a subject close to my heart for many years. It was during the third year of my Theatre degree at The University of East London, in which I decided to write my dissertation around the subject “Does Theatre Work in Prisons”. It was then that I realised that although this work has great potential and achieves lasting and positive results, why wait until individuals go to prison in order to start these rehabilitation practises? This was the core of my argument. My independent research on why people fall into such unbreakable cycles of re-offending. I did not really have to look far in terms of case studies – I had first-hand experience of the development of these self-destructive tendencies during my eight former years involved in similar criminal activity.
Enter Project TRAINING CURRENCY
During my time spent studying the immersion of young people in drugs and gang culture, I remembered a younger version of myself causing mischief in school – always doing things to shock and entertain my classmates and older peers, and thriving off the sense of empowerment which came with that. This was my downfall and is the downfall of many young people that get involved in crime today. Mischief in school quickly escalates into criminal activity in the streets, in search of the same reward. I was constantly seeking approval from the older boys on my estate but, as in so many inner city cases, they were far from perfect role models.You see this similar behaviour in nearly every deprived council estate in the UK. Out with the old and in with the new; a never ending crop of new criminals wanting to live in the same footsteps as previous ones who are either dead or in prison. When will this downwards spiral of re-offending ever end?
This way of problem solving has a common place amongst gangs and I believe the only way to break this habitual cycle is to introduce these young people into a situations where the language of slang has no place. In relation to our Clime-it Brothers project this safe place is in our retail environments whereby there is a lot of interaction between customers and the young people in question. Our customers play a big role in this exchange as they provide our young people with a constant reminder of how well they are doing and positive affirmations as to how changing their methods of communication can make for a drastic change in how they interact with others, and in the response they receive. This emotional support and encouragement is what these young people really need, and it fulfils that sense of importance and belonging they seek in gang culture in the first place.
The main idea started from wanting to create a platform which allows young people to channel their energy in a creative and positive way. With the use of retail this project aims at helping young people pick up vital communication skills that they have somehow either misused or have not had the opportunity to obtain. It is not a coincidence that young people with a low level of vocabulary are often the first to resort to violence in order to communicate, in an attempt to make themselves heard. I believe the reason behind this is that these young people have not learnt enough words to articulate their problems using language and realising that they are unable to effectively get their points across they believe violence to be the only option.
One of our main rules in our shops is that they are all No Slang Zones. This common connection is very powerful in the social integration of these once forgotten young people. Breaking bad habits begins with removing individuals from harmful situations and environments where there is a high risk of crime being committed to places where level of language is advance and the environments more positive.
I think this “Training Currency” idea is ground-breaking. 10 products sold directly benefits 10 young people in need of some positive guidance. Fashion and consumerism have been going on for a long time, but having a choice of where some of the money goes it after you purchase goods is a rare concept. Just imagine a high street whereby other big brands and companies adopted this method of Training Currency. This idea would provide more education and, perhaps most crucially, positive guidance, amongst young people, who, let’s face it, are our future. This generation is ours so let’s start the journey to restore the belief back into humanity again! For more information about these workshops please click here
Thanks for reading my story it means the world to me. Enjoy our products and help us change the world.