On Saturday 18 August 2007 I attended a fundraising event at my part-time work placement. The youth workers at Chestnut community centre in Tottenham held an event to support the future of their work.
The event was amazing, with a wide variety of events for all the members of the family. They had a bouncy castle for the kids, football games with the local police wearing massive clown-shoes for the teenagers, a jumble sale for everyone and amazing home made food at its lowest price ever: 70p for large portion of chicken. Even the sound of that was enough for me to lick my fingers.
The most brilliant part of the event was that it was created and put together by the youth workers. The hosts of the show Eysis, 15, and James, 16, said that they “wanted to celebrate the end of the year with their community and fight the current view of the media against youth in Tottenham.”
I believe they have achieved their goal and much more they raised more than £230 in just few hours. I witnessed extraordinary skills in time-management, organisation and professionalism.
They also had a pleasant surprise under their sleeves: as if all that wasn’t enough they also put together a show including live singing from Let’s Be Positive (LBP) group and an exclusive fashion show with must haves of the summer.
LBP is a youth group uniting young people with music and encouraging them to produce create and record positive music. The songs that I have heard the LBP singers sing were all original material, for example Detar X sang Put DA Gat Down. This song was designed to fight the gun crime in London.
Angela, the chair of LBP, said that it was their first time working with the Chestnut community centre but they would like to work along side them.
Rose, one of the volunteer for the event, said “If young people are willing to make a difference it’s our job as adults to support them.”
Like the rest of the adults, including the head of the Chestnut community centre, Rose was really impressed and proud of their young people and their success to take their future in their own hands and push it forward for a brighter day tomorrow. I am proud to work among side these young people and hope to get involved more in their future projects.
About this article
This article was written by Mojda Hashemyan, aged 18; a member of Headliners in London.
