Malcolm Ball along with Janet Currier, Jessica Leech and others helped with the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) major bid for Government funding. This founded Pepys Community Forum (PCF) in 1999/2000 through to 2006 (7 years). Voice4Deptford is a project of PCF. We owe our existence to Malcolm Ball. He is a sad loss to the young people of Lewisham.

His sister Karen Ball writes:

My brother Malcolm Ball, who has died aged 61 of cancer, made a lasting contribution to the lives of young people in south-east London through his youth work in Lewisham.

In 2003 he co-founded, with his colleague Denis Hunter, the innovative Lewisham Young Mayor Project, encouraging young people in the borough to engage in local politics. Each year a young mayor is elected, and the chosen person has an annual budget to work with and a cabinet of volunteer advisers to implement the manifesto.

The idea has been much copied at home and abroad, and Malcolm and the young people involved helped a number of continental European towns to set up their own versions, including in Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

Read his full obituary here.