Charlie Alcock

Charlie Alcock (born 1979, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; full name: Charlotte L. Alcock) is a British Clinical Psychologist and charity founder and CEO. Alcock attended the Cheltenham Ladies' College (1991-1998) and gained a first class degree in Sociology from the University of Warwick in 2001. She went on to attain a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology with distinction from Oxford Brookes University and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Canterbury Christchurch College in 2007. During her latter clinical training, Alcock specialised in community work and sourced a placement in New York at The DOME Project. There she worked with young offenders attached to street gangs such as the Bloods and the Crips - two of the most influential and dangerous gangs in the USA.
Alcock founded the MAC-UK charity in September 2008, alongside a group of extremely deprived and disaffected young men in North London. The charity now employs 9 staff and has a large body of volunteers which supports its work. It works at an individual, community and policy level.
MAC-UK
Alcock wanted to use a youth led approach to start up a project that would make mental heath accessible to deprived young people. She hung out by the local fish and chip shop in a very deprived area of North London, renowned for a high level of crime, gang violence, poverty and unemployment, until a young person spoke to her; it was 18 months in the making. At first they treated her with extreme suspicion. Some people threw stones and spat at her. Slowly, she gained their trust and together they set up MAC-UK's founding project, Music and Change.
Three years on, the charity engages with deprived young people all over London- those who do not seek help themselves and who are involved in gangs and other highly antisocial behaviour. Alcock and her team work alongside them to promote positive mental health through innovative, youth-led projects involving music, sport, theatre and cookery and one-to-one work known as “street therapy”. This confidential approach provides the opportunity to talk about any issues wherever they want, on a park bench or in McDonald’s.
MAC-UK and the young people involved also train other youth agencies in mental health and youth led working and seek to positively influence social justice and mental health policy for particularly disadvantaged young people.
Street therapy
“Street therapy” is at the core of the MAC-UK approach. It is a flexible and innovative approach to doing therapy with young people who may not otherwise speak about the challenges in their lives. Our motto is ‘whenever, wherever, whatever’. Street therapy is led by clinical psychologists who work in pairs with other MAC-UK team members, to adapt and apply psychological theory to support young people to realise the lives and futures they want and deserve. We also support young people to address social inequalities and issues which impact on their wellbeing such as housing, education and employment. The aim of street therapy is to alleviate mental health distress, address oppressive social inequalities, and ultimately to bridge young people into existing services by breaking down the barriers between the young people and the services which they find ‘hard to access’. The partnerships we build with other services are central to our work. One young person described how street therapy has supported him in “changing his life”.
Outcomes
Over 75% of the original group of young people who were on the road to prison when Music and Change first met them are now employed or doing work experience. 25% are receiving medical care within the NHS and some are also teaching in local schools.
Awards and nominations
2011
* MAC-UK won the Charity Times Charity of the Year Award 2011 (under £1 million income)
* Alcock won the Charity Times Rising Star Award 2011
* MAC-UK was a runner up at The Guardian Public Service Awards 2011 in the Children and Young People Category
* MAC-UK was a finalist in the Children & Young People Now Awards 2011
* MAC-UK is shortlisted for the Charity Times Charity of the Year 2011
* MAC-UK was awarded Sainsbury's Local Charity of the Year 2011 (Finchley Road branch)
2010
* Alcock won the Future 100 Social Entrepreneurs Award
* Alcock was runner up for the Beacon Young Philanthropist Award
* MAC-UK was shortlisted for the Centre for Social Justice Prize
* A young person working with MAC-UK won the Attlee Youth Leadership Award 2010
2009
* MAC-UK won the NCVYS Young Partners Award for the South of England
* A MAC-UK young person won the Attlee Award 2009 for changing his life and becoming an ambassador for the local community.
* A young MAC-UK trustee won the Barnet Youth and Connexions Award.
Media appearances
* Alcock appeared on Sky News on the 9th August 2011 to give her comment on the riots.
* Alcock appeared on BBC Radio London's Late Night Show with Joanne Good on the 9th August 2011 to discuss the riots.
*MAC-UK featured in CommunityCare.co.uk on 11th November 2011 with a profile of the Charity's work Using Music to Tackle Gun Crime. http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/11/11/2011/117745/using-music-to-tackle-gang-culture-and-mental-ill-health-in-london.htm
*Alcock and her work with MAC-UK provided the focus for a lead article in The Charity Times on The Riots and The Big Society. http://www.musicandchange.com/324/MACUK-in-the-news
*Alcock quoted extensively on 25th March, 2011 in a major article in Easterneye.eu on Gang Violence in general and the illegal use of knives in particular. http://www.musicandchange.com/324/MACUK-in-the-news
*April 2011, Alcock to an article on self-harming in the News Of The World Fabulous magazine entitled 'Bullies Made Me Do This'. http://www.musicandchange.com/324/MACUK-in-the-news
*MAC-UK was profiled in a leading article in January, 2011in The Ham & High. http://www.musicandchange.com/324/MACUK-in-the-news
*January 2011 MAC-UK profiled in Psyche-Talk, the official magazine for The British Psychological Society,in an article describing their innovative method of taking mental health out of the clinic and into the community. http://www.musicandchange.com/324/MACUK-in-the-news
*Alcock was interviewed in Red Magazine in December 2010. http://www.musicandchange.com/324/MACUK-in-the-news
Reports
Ending Gang and Youth Violence; Home Office 2011: MAC-UK cited as an example of best practice on page 34. The report stated "MAC UK, for example, are a leading charity specialising in detached youth work. They take mental health support to the streets, and meeting-places of vulnerable young people, so that support is available for them where and when they need it."
Link:http://www.musicandchange.com/fckuploads/file/Ending%20gang%20violence%20report.pdf
Speaker Appearances
* 01.12.11 Mental Health Congress - Putting Children at the Centre - Innovative Practice with Children and Young People
* 20.10.11 Camden & Islington AGM- How MAC-UK take their services to young men in local gangs
* 4.10.11 DWP Ending Gang Violence - Getting it right on the ground
* 3.10.11 DWP Conference for Work Programme Providers & Sub-Contractors - The Challenge of Youth Unemployment
* 19.09.11 8th European Congress of Community Psychology - Clinical Community Psychology in Practice with Young People
* 1.09.11 The Centre For Social Justice Alliance - Gangs roundtable Discussion
* July 2011 Comic Relief Annual Staff Conference
* July 2011 Camden Community Police Consultation Group (CCPGC)
* July 2011 Dept. of Health Conference
* June 2011 Camden Youth Summit
* April 2011 Putting the record straight- Lives not knives
* February 2011 Cambridgeshire Child & Adolescent Substance Use Service (CASUS)
* December 2010 Camden Gangology
* October 2010 Anna Freud Cutting Edge Conference
* April 2010 British Psychological Society
* March 2010 Anna Freud Lunchtime Conference
* 2009 Children & Young People Division of the Clinical Psychology Conference, Nottingham

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