RACE, GENDER AND IDENTITY. GREENWICH COMMUNITY COLLEGE REMAINS HIGHLY INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY COHESION.

This post was published on the 5th December 2011
Written by Beata Pankowska
Published in the marketing blog

Race, gender and identity are issues that trouble boys and young men in South East London.

Greenwich Community College has once again proved its engagement in supporting community cohesion by hosting ‘Capturing the journey towards community cohesion’ on 23 November 2011.The event was a presentation of the findings from a successful ID project run by ‘Working with Men’ and was organised in preparation for the report which is currently proposed for the House of Commons.

The project, based in Thamesmead involved working with 12 to 18-year-olds, and engaging them with race, gender and identity issues through arts, theatre and film focus. The ID project recently won the Baring Foundation Award for Community Cohesion and worked in partnership with Greenwich Community College in the very successful ‘Police Question Time’ event hosted by the college. The presentation was attended by around forty guests including local councillors, members of Youth Service, representatives from local schools who have also benefitted from the work of ID project, Richard Woods, Woolwich Polytechnic the Borough Commander, and representatives from Greenwich Community Safety Team.

Leslie Mitchell, Conflict Resolution Development Worker, called by his pupils and co-workers ‘the racism man’ due to his involvement in anti-racism work, presented the achievements of his ID project. The main focus of the project was to help boys and young men to relate to their own identity in the community, where the main concerns of the people living in the Thamesmead were gangs; in particular T Block, racism and community safety. ‘I think that what the project was really about is that when you set up the right conditions, people will talk, people will not feel scared or ashamed to have the views and to share with other people. So the other people can hear and maybe will be challenged to listen, to understand, and question them. It is creating an environment that enables and encourages boys and young men to safely discuss, share and challenge their opinions, attitudes and behaviours around sensitive topics, and I think this is how we measure our success.’

The ID project was put into life in free education and development based organisations: Greenwich Community College, Woolwich Polytechnic and Hawksmoor & West Thamesmead Youth Clubs. The co-ordinators of the project agreed that the project had a positive impact on the participants. Andrew Smith, Head of learner services at Greenwich Community College said: ‘The project had a positive impact on us, as some of our students, particularly from African communities weren’t getting themselves into stress, because they were being coached, and they were being mentored.’