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Young People

Fata He BME Development has developed a number for projects for young people particularly those of mixed Black-African and African-Caribbean heritage. Young people from these groups have faced years of exclusion and tension from both black and white communities. It was through Home Office funding and the establishment of a multi-agency panel who were primarily responsible for delivering the Plymouth Community Cohesion Facilitation Programme.

The concept of community cohesion in Britain was borne out of the disturbances which took place in the spring and summer of 2001 in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham. While there has been an acknowledgement of young people involved in the destruction of property and attacks on the police in these areas, very little has been established regarding the involvement and condemnation of far right activity particularly by the British National Party (BNP) whose visible racist political messages gave rise to these events by preying on the white working class residents of within the areas of Bradford, Burnley and Oldham.

Indeed, the Community Cohesion Review Team (CCRT) was set up to develop new and innovative ways to bring communities together by identifying good practice and police (Community Cohesion: A Report of the Independent Review Team – Chaired by Ted Cantle, 2001). The terms of reference for the Review Team were:

• To obtain the views of local communities, including young people, local authorities, voluntary and faith organisations in a number of representing multi-ethnic communities, on issues that need to be addressed in developing confident active communities and social cohesion.
• To identify good practice and to report to the Ministerial Group, and also to identify weaknesses in the handling of issues at local levels (Cantle, 2005:5).

Within the city of Plymouth it was hoped that the Community Cohesion Facilitation Programme would bring together the many divided communities which exist within our neighbourhoods, and allow them to develop common goals and a shared vision for the future particularly relevant in low areas of Black and Minority Ethnic settlement such as Plymouth.

The Fata He project within the Plymouth Community Cohesion Facilitation Programme was originally formed by a number of B&ME young people who felt excluded from current youth arts programmes based over the city hence, they came together and decided to put on a major performance at the Plymouth Guildhall. Within three weeks of rehearsals “It Don’t Matter If You’re Black or White” took place on Sunday evening the 20 June 2004 with over 270 B&ME people attending. (A full copy of the report: “It Don’t Matter If You’re Black or White” – A Report on the Success of a Plymouth Community Cohesion Black and Ethnic Minority Youth Arts Project, can be downloaded in the downloads section of this website).

Fata He continue to support B&ME young people through our young person B&ME representative who sits on the Board of Fata He. We also continue to support Parkside Community Technology College and Lipson Community Arts College in working with All young people in gaining an understanding of cultural awareness and issues which affect B&ME communities.