15 minute read
The Pythian club
THE PYTHIAN CLUB – OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNGSTERS By Anna Nagy
Helping others and raising awareness on issues They worked with Double Edge in which nearly 800 regarding mental health, street and domestic people have been involved in creating videos and plays. violence, knife and hate crimes, racial inequalities He noted that since football, boxing, music and drama among others are pertinent issues in our are the activities that mostly attract young people, they communities should be accorded the necessary decided to hold free football sessions for communities priority. The provision of such avenues does not as they want to offer opportunities to any young person only transform lives of individuals but rather filters who can benefit from the team and their mentoring. out the ill conducts which are entrenched within “Fortunately, it is possible for those young people who our communities. One outstanding figure who has could progress a lot and feel that they can do better to been championing such initiative within the City access more opportunities and to be involved in Pythian of Nottingham is the founder of the Pythian Club, FC. Pythian FC currently has 8 teams who play in proper Ben Rosser. Formerly a Police Officer, Ben used his registered league. There are different age groups so experience from the force and sports and came up anyone who is interested in playing football professionally with the idea of defeating the negative coverage and can join and be part of the teams”, he revealed.
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bad blood among youths through sport, music and and music to engage young people more, to network to
other recreational activities. The Club’s service is about coaching their members to help them develop new skills and to be part of a The Nottingham based Pythian Club offers young people positive and supporting social environment. They the opportunity to get involved in sporting activities like teach self-defence, respect, discipline while having football, boxing as well as music or drama. The club also fun and enjoying themselves. They also have a music provides support to young people through mentoring, studio where young people can learn more about self-defence and self-confidence. According to Ben many music and audio creation, write lyrics and express young people feel that they lack self-confidence and or their feelings in creative ways. There are around 250 are not good enough which goes down to damage them young people weekly who come and enjoy the courses but, “at the Pythian Club we want to show that they can do offered by the Python Club. “Thanks to the growthit, they can achieve it. This is in benefit of the community oriented approach, it is possible to be involved in just as it is for them”, he insisted. the mentoring program as a young person to help Mr Rosser said some young people are filled with of some difficult circumstances”, Rosser explained. disillusions and that being a bully or carrying around They call the young mentors ‘Young Leaders’ because knives is cool, but at the Pythian Club they want to support they get training to handle their duties and become them with positive initiatives, by being a role model for helpful to those who rely on them for mentoring or/ them and let them know that the way they think of life and coaching. This empowers them to be strong role is not in benefit of them nor for their surroundings. “This models, to improve their lives, to learn, to work and to is why we have numerous events around boxing, football just simply achieve more for themselves. other young people who are struggling as a result meet likeminded people and to have fun while doing “Living life is not always filled with rainbows but even if something that they really enjoy”, he continued. someone going through a difficult time it is important to remember to embrace these challenges, talk about this After successfully managing the football, boxing and with others and learn from what you have experienced music classes for years members of the club expressed during the challenging times, hence the moto of the their interest in having a drama club to create more Pythian Club is to bring people together and create awareness of the issue of knife and other forms of crime. change while help each other”, he concluded.
TACKLING EMERGING THREATS TO CHILDREN (TETC) & SCHOOL HEALTH HUB
By Sarah Lee TETC Team Manager
Why I am committed to anti-racism. This week marks the start of Black History Month. Some county schools will be celebrating, and others won’t consider it relevant to their settings. Some will have this way down on their list of priorities as they focus on the recovery curriculum and “catching up”.
Some will be feeling overwhelmed by the whole agenda. And some will be using the DfE’s latest guidance on implementing the RSHE curriculum as a cue to avoid talking about anything to do with race in case it’s seen as “too political”. Ever the optimist, I am hoping that others will have concluded that black history needs to be taught for 12 months of the year if we are ever going to live in an anti-racist society and will be celebrating the contributions of black people to both British society and the globe as a whole, by beginning to decolonise the curriculum.
This special edition of the newsletter however, isn’t to remind people that it’s Black History Month in October. It seeks to remind people that black history is white history (without significant unpalatable truths left out) and that it can’t be condensed into a single month. It seeks to encourage those colleagues who feel anger, sadness and frustration that black people continue to be subjected to racism on both an individual and systemic basis, to stay committed. It seeks to keep people awake to the injustices which exist in our society and keep the conversation going……..however difficult it might be. In this issue you will signposted to opportunities to get involved in the LA’s anti-racism work and to find sources of support and information to aid your own understanding and to support our children’s understanding. This edition is about allyship and the part each and every one of us can play in bringing about societal change.
Months on from George Floyd’s murder maybe some of you out there will be questioning how some people seem less concerned about racism than they previously stated they were. That racism and George Floyd’s murder is yesterday’s news. You might well be asking, “where has all the energy and commitment gone? Why is nobody talking about this anymore, not least doing something to change things?” Having worked in this area for more than 35 years there have been many times when I have voiced such frustrations.
Stephen Lawrence was murdered in my first year of teaching. The Equality Act 2010 brought the promise of a better system. 10 years on sometimes the challenges to being both conscious and keeping the conversation going, seeing so little progress, sometimes makes me feel weary. Whenever those days come I remember my white privilege is that I can choose to give up challenging racism; walk away from its ugliness; put it in the “too difficult box and put the lid on it, because I don’t live my life feeling its impact, and no matter how much I try to understand or empathise it just doesn’t hurt me like it hurts black people. Black people don’t have the luxury of saying this is “just too hard” and walking away. And you can’t fix a problem that’s not of your making when the people responsible for the problem deny it needs fixing in the first place. The graffiti artist Banksy described systemic racism with this useful analogy………
“People of colour are being failed by the system. The white system. Like a broken pipe flooding the apartment of the people living downstairs. The faulty system is making their life a misery, but it’s not their job to fix it. They can’t, no one will let them in the apartment upstairs.”
Every time I catch myself complaining about how hard this journey is, or with my head in my hands despairing, I remind myself that that’s precisely why I need to make and maintain my commitment to being antiracist. I can’t know what it feels like to be the person in the apartment which keeps flooding but I can learn to understand the plumbing and to replace the pipe with something that won’t be broken if we ensure we maintain it regularly and invest the right time and resources into addressing the fault.
The best plumbers realise that there is always something new to learn and are open to learning. They listen to the people who are affected by bad plumbing and work with them to find the right solution. They use the right tools and replace what needs to be replaced with something that won’t keep causing problems.
They receive training and don’t attempt to work on jobs which are beyond their knowledge and expertise without collaborating with those that do. Such an approach to tackling racism in our society would make such a difference. Involving black children and their families in this work is vital if we’re going to make the changes that are needed. Collaborating with other professionals, especially black professionals, is again a vital ingredient to success.
for the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Becoming anti-racist isn’t an overnight thing. It’s not even a destination. It’s walking a path alongside black people knowing that you’re wearing different shoes and understanding that although they know the terrain better than you, you have as much, if not more responsibility, for clearing the obstacles in the way of progress along that path.
I am disappointed that we haven’t made more progress so far. But I’m not done yet with challenging racism because I believe there are many people out there who feel like I do…..that we all have a part to play in dismantling it. I have had many conversations in these last few months with colleagues, teachers, parents and young people who genuinely feel that a change is coming, and we have an opportunity to
In today’s climate of easily accessible information it is now possible for us to know things that used to be unimaginable hidden. Institutionalised racism is not a taboo anymore that people deny but something that people raise awareness of. This is why knowing how this issue functions in our societies help us identify the actions needed to end it.
Patrick Williams, Senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University did a throughout research on the growing rates of racial disparity in the criminal justice system in the United Kingdom. He highlighted key principles for effective interventions with people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in contact with the system. Williams focused on the multidimensionality of social inequalities, the lack of clear strategy and officially approved programs to tackle racial disparity experienced by minority groups. The principles to govern minority ethnic intervention, the importance of acknowledging racialisation and rasism(s) and finding community empowerment models. His article is part of a series from Clinks, created to develop a far-reaching and accessible evidence base covering the most common types of activity undertaken within the criminal justice system. There are two main aims of this online series To increase the extent to which the voluntary sector bases its services on the available evidence base make things different this time. So, I am reaffirming my commitment to anti-racism and I am asking you to join us. If you want to be a part of the solution and want to work with supportive colleagues, please get in touch about joining one of our working groups detailed below. If you want to build your own knowledge and understanding visit our portal pages or request some CPD through our training offer. Set up working groups in your own schools- speak to parents/carers and pupils. Look at your curriculum offer, the resources you use, your policies and procedures through a black and not a white lens and consider what you see. Make October the month you commit to doing something on your anti-racism journey so we really start to have something to celebrate.
APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
Link to the whole newsletter: shorturl.at/ayRY0 organisations delivering an evidence-based approach.
Each article is written by leading academic scholars who are well-known in their fields. Therefore, if you are interested in getting to know more about how to empower your community by tackling institutionalised racism, read the article on the following link: https://www.clinks.org/publication/community-
empowerment-approaches
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JACQUELINE LOCKHART BY Joan Gathoni Jacqueline Lockhart is a community influencer organisations or get into entrepreneurship, just who has over 30 years of experience in planning do it. She believes there is learning in failure and and delivering community initiatives. She has being resilient in whatever you set yourself to do. been involved in projects that have a core in social She also encourages young people to be socially justice such as challenging BAME and disability conscious and be proactive in speaking up for discrimination. those who don’t have the voice to do it themselves.
Jacqueline currently works as a Community Engagement Specialist with the Voluntary Induction Unit. She also chairs two voluntary organisations, Ending Youth Violence Network that is at the forefront in addressing trauma and violence among the young people and reduces the risk of them getting into poverty, gangs and drugs, and The Rainbow Parents and Carers Forum that caters to parents with children and young people with disabilities. Jacqueline attributes her social justice nature to her mother who taught her the value of service to the people in the community and standing up for people in the community who are discriminated against. In her own words she said, “I am a woman who wears many hats and I get my motivation in helping see an individual’s life transformed for the better”. Her work with the Department for Children and Families in schools and establishing Young People Participation Network ultimately qualifies her as a specialist in her field within the community sector. Throughout her community engagement career both in formal and voluntary sector, she has been on the forefront of championing for the betterment of the services of BAME and the disabled in the community. In 2006, Jacqueline worked in an advice centre for African and Caribbean community and during this time, she was actively involved in identifying gaps within this community and helping grass root organisations to fill in the gaps although these organisations are no longer in existence in the community. The Ending Violence Youth Network centres itself in supporting young people in difficult situations such as gang violence, suicide, drugs, direct and indirect trauma associated with these kinds of circumstances. She remembers an instance where a young person who confided in her that the brother had committed suicide as she was not an expert in this field, had to seek assistance for the young person from the Nottingham City Council. She acknowledges the fact that the network offers support to youth led organisations and signposts them to relevant support groups and authorities. Jacqueline offers nuggets of wisdom to young people who would like to form their own
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