Voices blog

As part of Refugee Week, events are being held across the country to celebrate the contributions refugees bring to the UK. This week also sees the launch of InterACT in Bradford, one of the five participating cities this year. InterACT aims to celebrate the contributions young refugees and asylum seekers can bring to their communities. Last Thursday, I went to visit the Bradford InterACT group to introduce them to the project.

One of the aims of Refugee Week is to encourage a better understanding between communities. InterACT has a similar aim of building greater community cohesion and uses social action as a tool to bring together young people from different backgrounds. Each InterACT group is comprised of young people from the local area and young refugees and asylum seekers.

This year, the project is working with Bradford Youth Service and Bradford College ESOL Programme. Initially, young people from both groups worked independently to explore issues in their community through photography. They took photos of a range of issues in Bradford, including littering, graffiti, derelict buildings and vandalism.

Last week, I visited the team to introduce them to the InterACT project. This was the first time both groups of young people had met, so the focus was on games and activities to help them to get to know each other. In the session, the groups presented their photographs to each other and found that they had identified similar issues. The photographs formed a starting point for the team to explore the ‘good’ things about their community and the ‘bad’.

Among the good things they listed diversity, history, sports and culture (including the Bradford International Film Festival). The team then moved beyond the photographs to identify less visible problems in their community. We discussed everything from discrimination and drug abuse to the negative reputation of Bradford (last year voted the place tourists least wanted to visit).

InterACT aims to celebrate the contributions young refugees and asylum seekers can bring to their communities. At 4.30pm on Tuesday 21 June I will be interviewed by BCB radio about InterACT in Bradford. After they have completed their social action project, the final stage of the project involves the team organising a Celebration Event in their community to showcase what they have achieved. I will blog again at the end of next month, after the Bradford team have held their Celebration Event.

Read more about InterACT here, which this year is running in Cardiff, Barnsley, Bradford, Liverpool and Leeds.

Yesterday, groups of young people from across London gathered to talk about what action they could take to tackle a range of global issues they were passionate about as part of Act Global (a project by the Citizenship Foundation and Relief International).

Students had been working on lesson plans and after school resources from the Act Global website to discuss the causes and effects of a range of global issues and thinking about what solutions they might imagine to make the world a better place.

The venue for this event was the fantastic Living Room at the top of City Hall and the students gathered to share their solutions with other students and adults from a range of international organisations, media agencies and educational establishments. We also managed to bump into Boris Johnson in the cafe which was an excellent start to the event!!

The event kicked off at 3pm (ish) with an introduction of the heart of Act Global: the idea of critical connections and partnerships which was demonstrated through the partnership with the GLA as evidenced through our work with the Children and Young People’s Unit and the fact that Dee Doocey AM, the Chair of the Assembly was able to attend!

We listened to presentations from students on issues of maternal health, bullying, access to education and climate change to name a few. Students also heard how they could commit to raising awareness about food and sustainability by Jose Aguiar, by eating the average daily world meal (made up from a small amount of rice and beans) and donating the rest of their food budget to projects either in the UK or working internationally.

The event also provided an opportunity for all the guests to explore what they might do to tackle the issue of waste in London and we heard from Jenny Jones AM about what she thought about some of the ideas:

“I am confident that you will fix the problems created by my generation…because you are exceptional young people”

The event was wrapped up by Sarah Mosses from Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation who talked about the role of media in raising awareness of global issues. The story of a film supported by Channel 4 BRITDOC called A Small Act was shown and guests were encouraged to do their “small act” to tackle the issues facing the world today.

It would be great to hear the thing you would change if you had the power, the passion or the opportunity - use the hashtag #ificouldchangeonething on twitter.

Was the chant of students, teachers and community members at the fifth Value Life march in Haringey today. The Youth Act team went to support the work of this group that started in 2003 with Youth Act training. It was early starts all round (more…)