East London’s Next Top Role Model aims to find and reward young people who inspire and motivate their community. This could be through being a young carer and having to face responsibility beyond there years or defying the adversity and barriers faced against them.

 Applications are being taken in throughout February and March with the winners being invited to a private ceremony within an exclusive location.

 Some of the awards given out include innovation award for outstanding project leader and positive role model.

 Awards up for grabs include: netbooks, gift vouchers and the opportunity to sit on the board of our Charity and impact the work we do in the local community. If your from Lap 6 and 7 Area of Poplar, East London contact LiC for details 0207 987 8796 or complete this Application form

Youth Unemployment top news!

Government Reports: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15878796

More on this topic check out..More News…

GCSE results, and details of the results show an increase, for the 23rd year running, in the proportion of entries awarded between an A* and a C grade. Good news for our hard working young people who sat their exams this year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14661746

To support young people with their GCSEs, LiC encouraged our young people to start thinking about their own careers and education. We have now started drop-in personal development workshops, to help motivate and engage those struggling at school or uninspired to pursue any education whatsoever.  These workshops run over weekends and currently attended by 18 young people. Following these sessions, the group have been taking part in Maths revision workshops. We are delighted that most of these young people who sat their exams early this year received Bs.

The young people now tell us that they attribute this success to the help they had received from LiC at the Burdett Centre Maths Sessions. Since that point, they have consistently requested lessons at every opportunity, to the point where they have now asked us to come in on both Saturdays and Sundays to teach them, even during the summer holidays.

Also out today statistics to show that 18-24 NEET figures are on a high.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-146446

‘Getting a young person job ready is a challenging task, often it can take something between 3-9 months before someone can be considered job ready’ Terry Saunders LiC board member.

In reponse to this LiC have put together a brand new programme called ‘ Youth into Jobs.’ Suported through the Big Lottery Fund.  This is 9 month programme  of work focused training, that consists of building knowledge, enriching experience and confidence building targeted at young people aged 16-25. Covering the following: effective communications, confidence building, organising community projects, and building networks, public presentations, getting involved in governing structures,budgeting, and managing community projects. Their engagement with our partners is part of the training programme,will enable them to get exposed to the day to day operations of service providers and their decision-making processes. They will gain an insight as to how they can make a contribution in shaping the services that affect them. Their gained confidence and widened horizons will prepare them to the journey towards higher learning, and employment.

Delivered by our resident recuitment consultant and a LiC young leader. As a recruitment specialist, Anhar is able to share all the tips and tricks of the trade that he has picked up through years of experience in recruitment. Our unique selling point is that the sessions are delivered by our peer leaders who themselves faced the difficulties of the job market- secured in their post, they have decided to help those who currebntly facing the same difficulties.

With now over 27 registered participants already signed up to the project, we are seeing the growing need for such a programme. Please read their blog to see how they are getting on. http://youthintojobs.blogspot.com/

The jam packed programme combined trips, workshops and a video journalism element too. 

Anisa and Rohima filming in the Farmshop in Hackney

After an initial planning day on Monday the young people visited an urban farm located in Dalston, Hackney on Tuesday. The renovated high street shop on Dalston High Street has been transformed into a vibrant indoor farm complete with an in-house nutrient circulation system, organic café, greenhouse and a chicken coop. They currently have peas, tomatoes, spinach, carrots and a range of other home grown goods. The innovative East End farm aims to set a new twist to urban farming and encourages more people to make the most of their space and grow vegetables. 

Mosques in Poplar Cycling Project

On Wednesday, the half termers went to cover a new community project called ‘Mosques in Poplar Cycling Project’ in Victoria Park. The initiative targeted mosques in Poplar to take part in a cycling project which leads on to a qualification. Our young people went there to find out why and how it set up and interviewed the participants on how they felt out the project.

Young people meet MP Jim Fitzpatrick

After that, the group travelled to Westminster to meet their local MP – Jim Fitzpatrick at his parliamentary office overlooking the Thames. The young people wanted to find out his role and duties as well as asking him about why there’s such high levels of unemployment and what the government is doing to help. Mr Fitzpatrick provided the young people with the latest debates from Parliament on this matter as well as answering all their questions.

Shakeel testing Russel with smoke inhaler

On Thursday, the young people attended a workshop on smoking led by the NHS. They took part in activities and discussed the negative affects on smoking. The session was followed by a meeting with their local Councillor Kosru Uddin. The young people had the chance to find out his roles and responsibility as well asking him what actions the borough are taking to reduce young unemployment.

Workshop with Tower Hamlets youth service

On Friday, a member of Tower Hamlets Youth Services came down to meet the young people to talk about issues affecting them and of upcoming events and programmes to get involved in. The young people will take part in workshops on ‘Stop and Search’ later this month.       

‘On Tuesday 13^th September, we played a friendly football match with the residents of Leopold Estate at a 5-a-side pitch in Mile End Stadium. We first met up in front of Leaders in Community (LiC) head office at 9:15, and then went to the residents. There were 3 residents in the beginning, but later we met up with the rest of the residents who came to the pitch, 9 people in total. LiC usually work with the youth in the community but after years of success with them they have decided to also help the older generation. The aim of the project was to reach out to the older generation and get them to be more active and healthy because in the local community there are a lot of illnesses, like diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, etc.

 Once we got to the pitch our mentor Abdul Miah went through a few exercises and warm-ups. After that he picked 2 captains and the teams were selected. Me and my fellow work experience friend were on the same team .The game started well with the residents passing and taking shots at goal, they all gave each other chances even to those who were less skilled. Overall, all the residents scored at least 1 goal each. You could see the residents enjoyed what they were doing during the sweaty 2 hour match and were looking forward to next Tuesday when they will do it again. “The residents are more active than me”, fellow work experience colleague Jawad Hasan said after the match.

The football with the residents is part of a Poplar HARCA programme but is being delivered by LiC. The residents there were not only Bangladeshi but there were other residents from different ethnicities and backgrounds, there was also a variety of ages. LiC also do a lot more with the residents they take them to the gym on Wednesdays and swimming on Fridays. LiC also do work with women, children and have other activities for elderly people if you do not fancy football like chair aerobics, yoga, Wii fitness, fashion and design, badminton, Capoeira and violin lessons. All the activities are free for residents.’ By Parvez and Jawad 15 (From Langdon Park School in Poplar, East London)

If you would like to join them or get more information please contact Abdul on: 020 7987 8796 or 0743 2762112 or .abdul-lic@live.com

 Through a recent workshop with 15 young people from the Aberfeldy area of Poplar, we learnt that young people value confidence building workshops, as they have a negative view of how they are perceived by potential employers. These young people feel that they don’t have the necessary language skills, or are able to present themselves as suitable candidates for employment. Majority lack GCSE Maths or English and do poorly when it comes to interviews.

 When asked what would help them boost their confidence and other skills, they all expressed interest in more practical, interactive activities based on every day communication, skills which will help them improve their telephone manner and interview technique. They felt that traditional CV building workshops were useful only if they had experience to back up the CV.

With this is mind we set up Food for Thought project with the goal:

To encourage young people to realise their full potential through linking them with inspiring members of the community, who will share experiences, support and inspire them to make positive decisions around their education and career path.

Objectives:

•  To encourage young people to communicate with professionals, to develop their listening skills and ability to build relationships
•  To develop skills and confidence in areas such as communication, team work, organisation, leadership and project management
•  To encourage young people to really think about their future path, potential career options and personal aspirations
•  To build lasting relationships between young people and professionals within the community and to raise awareness of LiC projects within the corporate sector

What we do:

Mentoring sessions will take every Fridays from 5pm-8pm at the Aberfeldy Centre, with a group of 15 young people 16-24. We use cooking to engage the young people, to get them talking and working as a team. Preparing food for others involves time keeping, budgeting, design and planning and preparation – all valuable transferable skills needed for personal and professional development. With support and direction from the coporate mentors, the young people ‘cook’ up a plan of action of things they would like to achieve and set themselves goals for the future.

With thanks to our partners at ELBA who have supported us with coporate contacts from Citi Bank, Broadbridge, and Mr Site. Thanks to Sophie Teh and Yasmin Naqushbhandi for also ran sessions with our young people. Watch this space for LiC COOK BOOK, full of fun reciepes to cook at home as well as top tips on job hunting.

International Youth Exchange project support

LiC film workshop, Study Support, Peer leadership/training, Youth into Jobs, Bike City,Youth sessions, Food for Thought Mentoring

As well as seeing the sights of London, the youths enjoyed a visit to the seaside, kayaking, bowling, and a street dance class. They also participated in a range of skills sharing workshops focusing on confidence building, team work and leadership skills.

Momtaz Begum, LiC’s project manager says: “The majority of the group had never left Nepal before so this was a fantastic opportunity for them to experience a completely different culture and way of life. The programme was a great success and a real achievement for both groups. It also highlights the extent to which LiC is growing as an organisation.”

This visit marked the second stage of the International Youth Exchange programme. Last September 7 members of LiC visited Nepal for the initial stage where they participated in a similar 10 day programme hosted by national youth led organisation, Youth Action Nepal.  

Thanks to the British Council, DFID and the gloval community links programme ,we have completed 2 exchange trips in under a year, and will be working towards producing our own learning materials on ‘How to complete a successful exchange project’ which we will share with others. The groups plan to continue working together with hopes for more exchanges in the future.

Our Exchange project didn’t just end there. Leading up to the trip LiC volunteers held a series of activities to raise money for Himaljyoti Community School we visited during our stay in Nepal back in 2010. We were so taken back by the motivation of the small children and their village that we decided we would come back to London with the aim of supporting the school in our own way. To achieve this aim we set out to raise money through a variety of creative events, the first of which was our Mount Snowden Trek in June this year, this was followed by cake stalls, Car wash and a final Gala dinner attended by 80 young people and partners. In total LiC raised £1200 and its increasing.

If you are interested in donating please click here.

The sponsored trek is part of a long line of events organised by the young leaders over the summer to raise profile and money for our up and coming Nepal project.