BME Youth Link Up Programme

Link-up Logo

BVSNW in partnership with the Cardiff Young People’s Partnership has developed this programme to increase BME youth participation in Cardiff. The programme is to run over a period of two years and commenced in March 2007. It is managed by a steering group consisting of representation from Save the Children, Barnardos Neville Street Project, Cardiff Communities First BME Scheme, Cardiff Youth Service- the Butetown Youth Pavilion and the Social Inclusion Project.

Its main aims are to bridge the gap and work as a catalyst between BME young people aged 11-25 and decision makers, public bodies and service providers to encourage dialogue, consultation and influence strategies and policies. Thereby providing an opportunity for meaningful engagement in local democracy for these BME young people in Cardiff. It is a city wide project that aims to develop and support a core group of BME young people who will be responsible for the planning, organisation and delivery of a minimum of 6 participatory consultation events and information workshops targeting 60-100 young people.

The principle behind the project is that all the work is led by BME young people.

The programme was officially launched on 28th March 2007 at the Temple of Peace, Civic Centre in Cardiff, where a number of organisations and young BME people from Cardiff came together to find out what the programme could offer them. The young people also participated in fun workshops to put across their ideas of what they wanted from the programme and how it could help them. Some of the ideas that came across were:

  • The need for good role models
  • Improved facilities
  • Better and meaningful communication
  • More dialogue between young people and the service providers needed
  • Young people need to work together
  • Respecting the different cultures and communities in Cardiff

The programme aims to broaden the participation of BME young people and will focus on issues facing Asian young women and Asylum Seekers and Refugees.

Recent Developments :

BME Youth Link-up Programme

Programme of Activities and Events:

Prince Trust Workshops:

The Black Voluntary Sector Network Wales (BVSNW) was commissioned by the Princes Trust Cymru to engage BME young people, young women and Refugee and Asylum Seekers in consultation. The purpose was to explore, identify and discuss the following with the target group:

Their needs and aspirations as young people, their knowledge of the Princes Trust Cymru and their mainstream programmes, perceived barriers to participation, exploring opportunities available to engage in activities and their ideas and priorities for community projects and activities.

The consultation work was planned, designed and delivered by Sania Munir and Patricia Barrera, in-house participation consultants working on behalf of BVSNW.

Eid ul Adha ‘Family Event’:

In December of 2008, the BME Link-up Programme provided the Pavillion Outreach Project (POP) with support in developing and planning an Eid Al-Adha (this is the celebration that takes place after the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia) Family Day. This took place on Saturday 20th December at the Butetown Youth Pavilion, Cardiff.

The event was a great success and was attended by over 300 people (40% of them being BME young people) and was staffed by a team of youth volunteers from the Somali, Yemeni and Afro-Caribbean communities of Cardiff.

Young People’s Film Club:

The Young People’s Film Club was initiated to:

• Create a space for different groups of young people to come together

• Engage young people in film and the media

• Explore the issues and experiences within the film

• Discuss ideas for solutions and activities

The project aimed to empower BME young people (14yrs-25yrs) to voice their opinion on the different issues affecting them (and young people in general) in Cardiff, through the medium of film. It was a pilot project that screened 3 different films on various issues that were shown at the ‘Butetown History and Arts Centre’. Each of the films was followed by a discussion held during an interactive workshop to gather feedback on what the young people felt about the issues raised in the film. The films shown were: ‘Adulthood’ , ‘Hidden Lives’ and ‘Muslim 1st – British 2nd’

The Film Project was very popular, attracting over 50 young people to the viewings.

Asylum Seeker and refugee workshops:

A series of workshops were organised by the Link-up Core group (Dec – March 09) to engage with Young Asylum Seekers and Refugees living in Wales. The core group met with a number of agencies and organisation that work with these particular groups to identify the issues faced in accessing the services available to them in Cardiff.

Some of organisations that BME link-up worked with included:

Welsh Refugee Council, SOVA Cymru, The Parade – Cardiff , The Buzz Information Shop and The African Youth Association

The workshops engaged over 25 young people from different countries and ethnicities including Eritrean, Ethiopian, Sudanese, Somali, Congolese and Zimbabwean. The workshops were facilitated by 3 main Core Group members – Najiba Arabzai, Faiza Mohammed and Amal Omar. The workshops explored the perceptions and experiences of accessing mainstream services and of general life in Cardiff.

Diverse-City Multimedia Project:

The Diverse-City Multimedia project has proven to be a huge success. This piece of work was planned to identify young people currently accessing services within the city. It is a multi-media project where the young people received training in all aspects of multi-media skills. In partnership with local multi-media company “Widelode” BVSNW provided the training and the constant support to the young people involved. We targeted youth centres and our network contacts to recruit and engage 7 BME young people as trainees and producers of a short documentary. The project is on-going and filming is currently taking place at the National Museum of Wales. (Oscars here we come)

• A Stop and Search Study Group was established that interviewed 120 young BME people on their experiences of being stopped and searched by the Police. The initial findings showed disproportionate searches, negative experiences, poor service and elevated frustration and anger towards the police by the young people interviewed.

• Facilitated Personal and Social Education (PSE) sessions exploring their views and experiences around Education and Employment. The sessions engaged 150 young people (around 40% were from BME backgrounds).

For further information on these projects or alternatively to get involved with the BME Youth Link-Up Programme, please contact:

Hanna Miyir, Youth Development Officer

on 02920 44 0182 or email h.miyir@bvsnw.org.uk

Top: Link-up project