Advocacy

The lack of a centre for the community is a major obstacle and a challenge for the development of our community particularly young people as there are no youth facilities in the local area such as youth club in the White City area where many Somali families reside, we shared our concerns with the LBHF for such need and submitted a proposal last year regarding the use of Old health centre as a temporary measure in white city Estate as the area is under process for redevelopment as part of White City Central Project.

Our Somali community needs this centre for multiple uses including a youth centre, socialising place for our elderly, an education centre for parents and children and offices for our network. Our aim is to work with the council to reduce inequalities by ensuring residents have fair access to facilities and resources in order to residents to integrate and improve their quality of life. There is a need for investment in facilities as this will help engage young people in positive activities to refrain from crime, violence, anti-social behaviour and drugs.

We had a couple of meetings with the local councillor, director of the economic department and deputy council leader and have received a positive response to consider our proposal.