Deirdre "Dee" Kelly, also known as White Dee, is a British TV personality and actor. In 2014 and 2015, she appeared in the TV documentary series Benefits Street, and in 2014 she took part in Celebrity Big Brother. She plays Liz in the 2019 film Ray & Liz, directed by Richard Billingham. In 2014, Kelly spoke at a Policy Exchange fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham and is currently the Co-Director of Birmingham Says No to Knife Crime and Youth Violence.
Dee joins me on the Community Safety Podcast today to share her experience of growing up as part of a close-knit community in Birmingham in the 1970s. She discusses the Benefit Street documentary and its impact on her life, both positive and negative, and why she felt she ultimately had to move away from James Street. Dee also shares her experiences in setting up the Birmingham Says No to Knife Crime and Youth Violence community organisation and their plans to stop the epidemic by empowering young people with options and opportunities.
"We've just got to hope that people do come together because I do think people power will make a change." - Dee Kelly
Today on The Community Safety Podcast:
● Why Dee feels that the sense of a close-knit community in Birmingham has been lost
● Why it is so vital to protect young people’s mental health and how we can start doing it more effectively
● What postcode wars are, and how we can change things and knock these barriers down
● Why preaching to kids about antisocial behaviour doesn't work and what we should be doing instead
● What we can do to mend the relationship between the police and their service users in Birmingham
● The epidemic of knife crime in Birmingham and Dee’s opinion on how we can work to solve the problem
● Dee’s view on early intervention and how to spot at-risk young people and effectively help them
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