BME Young People speaking out...

The ‘BME Young People Speaking Out’ Project was a partnership project between MCFB and English as an Additional Language Service (EAL). It was funded by the Scottish Government through the Voluntary Action Fund's ‘Race, Equality and Integration Community Support Fund’ and ran from July 2006 to August 2008.

The Project aimed to enable BME young people in schools to speak out and have their voices listened to; it also aimed to increase their integration and participation in mainstream and out of school activities; and to reduce the barriers they experienced in doing this. To achieve its aims the project facilitated group work of 6-10 week duration with young people in primary and secondary schools in Edinburgh, and consulted with new migrant Polish children and their families.

The consultations gave young people an opportunity to celebrate, value and share aspects of their culture; to explore shared experiences and identify issues which affected their lives in and out of school; and to identify barriers to taking part in mainstream activities that they would like to take part in both in and out school; most importantly it gave them a voice which helped them to feel valued and included.

Young people have been involved in feeding back the findings to schools and it is important that these continue to be embedded in mainstream practice both in schools and in youth provision, and for young people's voices to inform the development of policies, programmes and mainstreaming of services. Please see the Project Report for more details.

Funded by:

Project Report:

© 2008 MCFB

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