Stakeholders Meeting at Loxford Youth Centre

The Stakeholders meeting was an event that took place on the 2nd June 2010 at Loxford Youth Centre. The aim of the meeting was to hold discussion topics on various issues in the London Borough of Redbridge.

As a member of the Youth Action Team myself and Rebecca Awan sat on the table concerning the opportunities to volunteer in the borough. It was striking to see that for a London Borough such as Redbridge just how fragmented it was in terms of the organisations that knew about each other. In addition, the fact that the north of the borough lacks or is lacking the opportunities that are in the south.

As we all know, Redbridge provides excellent links to the City and is served by the A12 and A406. The table also expressed concern that the local economy is loosing out to Central London because of the vast array of opportunities the centre of London brings. It was decided that to address these problems more needed to be done to make organisations like the Youth Service, Housing Service and the Youth Action Team aware of each other. It is hopeful that a sub-group involving all these organisations will be created for greater dialogue between us all.

Youth Talk 2 Police- 25th May 2010 @ Barking Town Hall

What was a cautious and uncertain start to the evening, ended in an unexpectedly vibrant debate on issues surrounding stop and search, crime and public engagement. At 5.30 the conference room filled with delegates consisting of Barking residents, UpRising and Youth Action Team members, all participants between the ages of 16-25. Our panellists were Inspector Ivan Hayes (Barking & Dagenham Police), Guy Dehn (Witness Confident), Randy Khela (YAT member) and Adiva Kestenbaum (UpRising).

What we feared most were all things associated to live events, a silence filled room, no questions being asked and eyes glazed over. You could say we were very hopeful. So what we did was prepare a list of questions beforehand as insurance. However, to our surprise and delight, the audience responded to the panellists fantastically and we abandoned our plan B. Statistics were shared, opinions were expressed and most importantly rights were learned with regards to stop and search and protection when giving a witness statement. Where most the participants had initially admitted that they felt that they did not trust the police or share any positive experiences, by the end of the evening there was consensus amongst them that they understood the police a lot better and would definitely like to work with them in the future.

As this is a pilot project, we would definitely like to do an event similar to this but on a bigger scale.

Well what a great event we had at the Barking Town Hall. It was great to see passionate people turning up and being open to the discussions that were being presented! Hope we do more stuff like that soon! And Alex was a great presenter and Randy a good choice 4 a presenter!!

The Youth Action Team and UpRising bring to you 'Youth Talk 2 Police' @ Barking Town Hall

A Joint Statement by Alex, Rebecca and Craig!!

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii,

We are back after a long absence, I apologise to anyone who was looking for me (me being Alex), Rebecca who knows!!!

Alex: I thought it would be useful to tell you about Youth Talk 2 Police which will be happening on Tues 24th May at Barking & Dagenham Town Hall between 1730 - 1930pm. The event promises to touch on issues such as Stop and Search, Crime and Justice and Youth and Police co-operation.

Rebecca: Wow Alex that sounds really interesting.... whos going 2 be there??

Craig: Lots of people are going to be attending the event. You will have the chance to speak to policemen, other people which work within your area and your YAT team!

Alex: These issues affect everyone so it is very important that we get this into the open, tell your friends about it and if they have any questions, to come down and get their views heard. It promises to be a spectacular event.

Rebecca: Thats sounds great!! So come along and join in the discussion!!

SEE YOU THERE!! :D

Youth Talk 2 Police

Hello to all of you using the inter-web I'd just like to update all of you on another awesome event that we the Youth Action Team are holding and facilitating for you the general public. This time our event entails a discussion between you the public and those in the police force, as well as local councillors and a Special guest panellist that, we would like to keep secret just so that you become more inticed in to coming.

It will be on the 25th May from 17:30 to 19:30 at Barking Town Hall.

For more information please contact us on NELYAT@hotmail.com

Video from the Big Silly Sleepwalk