Case study
Youth Engagement
Space
(Balsall Heath,
Birmingham)
The Home Office’s Building a Stronger Britain Together
Programme aimed to support civil society and
community organisations to create more resilient
communities, stand up to extremism in all its forms
and offer vulnerable individuals a positive alternative,
regardless of race, faith, sexuality, age, and gender. The
programme allowed organisations that share these aims
to bid for in-kind support and grant funding for specific
programmes that deliver goals set out in the Counter
Extremism Strategy.’
Working in partnership with MELA Social Enterprise,
the aim of the Youth Engagement Space (YES) project
was to address the absence of youth provision and the
escalation in gang culture, drug dealing, extremism, and
mental health in the Balsall Heath area of Birmingham.
Through the hosting and facilitation of weekly activities
events, led by young leaders aged 15-24, young people
form a variety of backgrounds were bought together in
a safe space to examine and celebrate shared values
in a diverse community engaging with a wide range of
cultures and identities.
Impact
• 5 Youth Leaders engaged
and supported to drive social
action solutions and impact
• The design and testing of
a new social action youth
leadership programme.
• 24 weekly events and
team building activities codesigned
and delivered with
young people
• 321 young people engaged
with the project
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