It showed us that we’re not stuck inside a box, we might feel like we are stuck living in Moss Side and being a young Black male and we might think we can’t achieve as much but Kem constantly makes us aim higher…
Shiloh and Baais (age 15)
RESIDENTIAL AND STOP AND SEARCH PROJECT
Having worked with Hideaway Youth Project in Manchester in the past, we were pleased when youth worker Akemia Minott approached us to work with a group of young people who were interested in doing their own social community project. Having previously participated in R2S workshop sessions conducted by R2S role models, the young men felt that they were the right people to inspire and empower them to execute their project.
Their plan was to create personal development workshops emanating the work that they had seen from R2S role models but within their peer group. In order to do this they would need knowledge and exposure to some of the key issues that they would tackle in the workshops, so the first thing they did was plan a residential to London.
The residential would consist of visits to youth organisations in London that faced similar issues to those in the Moss Side community and finding out what types of intervention they used to help the young people; a visit to HMP Thameside to find out what it was like to face the consequences of negative behaviour and to discuss issues concerning young black males such as joint enterprise.
As they also planned to create a Stop and Search video (to use in their sessions) inspired by the London video Y-Stop, they visited Ken Hinds, the chairman of Haringey stop and search monitoring group. The video that they wanted to create would help young people in Manchester know how to react when being stopped by the police as this seemed to be an issue of contention with the young people.
With the support of R2S role model Tony Henry, the young men made a plan of all the activities they wanted to complete on the residential. Their ideas were pitched to Collette Noel (R2S Local Development Officer), Jamie Rodney, Tony Henry and Valentine Ogunba (R2S role models) in July 2015. After a successful pitch their project idea was approved and the group of ten boys came to London the following week to start implementing their project.
The boys gained a good insight in to some of the issues young black men face and the outcomes and consequences of negative behaviour. They also felt that it made them address and look at their own situations and where they want to be in the future, so it was inspiring for them too especially when they visited corporate organisations where they saw black men in senior positions. They were also able to think about how to address some of these issues with the young people back in Moss Side and try to reinforce a positive sense of identity.
The boys have now created their own Stop and Search video called ‘React’ and are now working with Manchester police so that they can use the video as a learning tool for local police and future police officers especially young cadets.
You can read more about this residential here.
The group’s stop and search video has been completed and can be seen here.