Community Partners
Stronger Together
Second Wave works with partners to support young people and create safer communities.
About Us
Based in the heart of Deptford, SE London - for 40 years Second Wave has been empowering young people to speak truth to power and affect change in their communities.
In June 2021, we received the prestigious King's Award for Voluntary Service for the contributions our volunteers make to youth arts, community engagement and social justice benefits in Lewisham.
We are pleased to accept this award on behalf of our young volunteers, members, staff and partners who have helped us to deliver our work with young people in the community.
Hate Crime Working Group
We are co-founders for Lewisham's Hate Crime Awareness Group - established over 14 years ago.
We work closely with our partners in Lewisham Council, SEBCU Police, TSG officers, Lewisham VAWG Forum, Young Women’s Hub and other PRUs, local schools and colleges and Greenwich University on practice-based research in mitigating hate crime.
By bringing together all members of the community, we can make Lewisham a safer space.
Young women's work
We work closely and long-term with local young women to challenge abuse and violence faced by young women. We offer creative, safe and fun space where young women can build solidarity and resilience and learn new skills. We want to lower barriers and offer safe space with skilled female facilitators bringing a range of drama, film, media and advocacy workshops.
Shadow Games
A drama-based outreach programme for schools, colleges and community settings.
We have developed our Shadow Games project in Lewisham and London since 2016.
This project takes a drama and film-based approach to issues of grooming, radicalisation, violent extremism and hate crime.
Our Shadow Games film and learning resources are available to schools, colleges and community organisations.
Brilliant, original, engaging workshop by Second Wave Youth Arts on the issues around vulnerability and extremism...
Ian Paish
Find out more
Deputy Headteacher, Deptford Green School
What we have achieved
In June 2021, Second Wave received the King’s Award for Voluntary Service for the work of our young volunteers.
In 2015, Second Wave’s Community Development Worker was awarded the British Empire Medal in recognition of ground-breaking work to build trust between young people, the police and the wider community.
In 2024, Second Wave's Jessica Davey was awarded a BEM for her work in supporting young people.
Young leaders from Second Wave have been invited to the House of Lords to contribute to policy debates around policing of young adults.
In 2023, they visited our local MP in Parliament to discuss issues of importance for young people.
In 2014, Second Wave was nominated for the Mayor of London Peace Awards for youth engagement addressing the growing issue of knife crime.
In 2007, a Metropolitan Police Service Commendation was awarded to Second Wave for services to young people and the wider community.
The University of Greenwich is currently working with Second Wave on a research project examining our model of creative leadership practice.
Support Our Work
We know that these are difficult times and we are working tirelessly to ensure young people have access to high-quality arts provision. All your contributions will go directly into keeping our venue and programmes by the youth for the youth.
Get in touch
Send a message to the Second Wave team
If you’d like to speak to someone, please call 020 8694 2444. Alternatively, please use the contact form below.
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You can always call us on 020 8694 2444 if you like.
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Receive emails from Second Wave Youth Arts with information about our programme and how you can get involved.
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We use Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Linkedin social media platforms.
You are welcome to follow our profiles, we keep our programme up to date on our website and our platforms.
You can read our social media community guidelines to find out more about how we manage our platforms.