Youth Engagement Project

The Youth Engagement project will engage and equip 20 BME young people aged 16 -20 years with the skills to act as community advocates who engage with ‘mainstream’ services & agencies as ‘active citizens’. For instance there are various independent advisory groups across the city & county, but many of them struggle to attract young representatives from the BME community. As a result BME young people do not feel that their ‘voices’ are being heard. It is a vicious cycle - that this project seeks to break.  We will recruit and train a pool of young people who have themselves previously experienced disadvantage and social exclusion. The training will be informal, interactive and mainly action-learning focused - where participants learn by ‘doing’.

After completing the training, the young people will be introduced to appropriate organisations - depending on their area of interest.  It will run from July – Dec 2010, in the Radford and Hyson Green areas of Nottingham. Our own experience of the ‘miss-match’ between BME young people and the ‘system’ is further highlighted in existing research.  By its nature, the programme is multi-faceted, it combines prevention, early intervention, community development & youth empowerment strategies; enabling us to fully engage, reach & work with young people. BME young people are under-represented on local Advisory / Steering groups. This project will break down the barriers and promote citizenship and pride.

This project is funded by the Neighbourhood Renewal Small Grants Programme, which is managed by Nottingham Community Foundation.

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