GROUND-BREAKING EDUCATION & SPORTS PROJECT PROVIDES A HOLISTIC OFFER FOR DISADVANTAGED YOUNG PEOPLE

Salaam Peace, an award-winning community engagement programme, have developed an innovative project, consisting of study support, life skills development and organised football, for young people in the heart of multi-cultural East London.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately disadvantaged young people from BAME backgrounds. The shutting of schools, reduced sporting provisions and reduced familial disposable income have exacerbated existing issues including poor educational attainment, obesity, and inactivity, all of which contribute to reduced prospects later in life.

Our project addresses these issues. On a Saturday morning, young people aged 10-14 participate in a weekly drop-in study support session at the CRATE building in Walthamstow, East London. Each week, young people access a diverse, safe, and social space to complete homework and revision, with support from trained members of the Salaam Peace team. Once a month, instead of an academic session, Salaam Peace deliver an interactive life skills workshop covering fundamental skills that we are not necessarily covered extensively in mainstream education, including self-awareness, mindset and resilience; in order to equip participants with the skills to succeed in life. Immediately after attending these sessions, the young people then represent the Salaam Peace youth football teams in the Hackney Marshes Saturday Youth Football League.

In the space of a single day, participants access organised educational and sporting provisions that facilitate increased educational attainment, physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, and the development of positive peer relationships.

Azi Mohammed, Director of Operations at Salaam Peace, added: ‘During the most challenging social situation of our time, it is essential to provide a holistic offer of education and sports. In a time filled with doom and gloom, the project has provided our beneficiaries with something to look forward to and has kept them away from negative influences. The project has brought a new dimension to our multi-award-winning programmes. We are extremely grateful to have access to such a wonderful space at the CRATE and are looking forward to further developing this project.’

For more information, please contact azi@salaampeace.org

The events of 7/7 on the streets of central London led to the formation of one of our capital’s most successful community sports engagement programmes. 15 years on, it continues to inspire as a multi-award-winning community sports initiative. Not even the current lockdown has forced it off its ambitious programme.

Salaam Peace was founded by Dr Sabir Bham. He’d been standing at Liverpool Street station 24 hours before those July 7th events, celebrating London winning the 2012 Olympics/Paralympics. The following day came the bombings, one of them at that same station. The hostility Sabir experienced in their aftermath as a British Muslim, on the streets and using the tube, led him to set up a national football initiative called the Eid Cup. It aimed to break down barriers between diverse communities, forming the basis of what became Salaam Peace.

Salaam Peace is a community engagement programme that uses a mixture of sport and social education to bring together people of all ages from diverse cultural backgrounds. The programme works mainly with two local councils with high deprivation and diverse communities, Waltham Forest, and Hackney, as well as many other schools, Trusts, and academies. Where there is a need to provide enjoyable and fulfilling community programmes through sport, programmes that encourage social and cultural cohesion, Salaam Peace are there.
With its motto of “Be the change in the community we want to see” the guiding principles that run through all its work are:

1. building from the bottom, encouraging participants to be managers
2. community cohesion
3. a multi-ethnic approach

Salaam Peace builds from the ground floor up, investing time in the communities around them. They develop local role models who start as participants and progress to become leaders. It tackles issues that could lead to communities becoming polarised, for those at risk of anti-social behaviour or have been in the criminal justice system. It works in all communities, of all faiths and none.

As lockdown became a reality, Salaam Peace had already changed its ways of engaging with its core participants, approx. 250 per week aged 3-65 years old:

• filming tutorials, videos, and infomercials, ensuring those that rely on engagement in Salaam Peace programmes were still communicating with us
• distributing board games, sports equipment, and books, to give families as much as possible to keep mind and body actively engaged. This was enhanced by the funding streams above
• piloting non-contact socially distanced sessions, to encourage policy makers to allow organisations to deliver major projects on the ground.

Some of its awards won recently have been:

1. Mayor of London’s “Sport United” award, 2019 London Sports Awards
2. “Sport for Social Growth” Award, 2019 British Sports Awards
3. South England winner, 2020 Corporate LiveWire Prestige Awards
4. Azi Mohammed – “Young Leader with Impact award”, 2020 London Impact Awards
5. Agne Daunoraviciute – “Young Leader with Impact award”, 2020 London Impact Awards
   

Reflecting on the past 15 years, founding director Dr Sabir Bham says: “I began my volunteering journey at the age of 14 and was brought up with the belief that if something needs to be done then do not wait for anyone else. This has stuck with me throughout my life, and formed our mission statement of Salaam Peace, “Be the change in the community you want to see.” Through continued hard work, passion and a strong team of people around me we have had an impact in our community. Despite our successes, this ground-breaking work is needed now more than ever”.

Dr Sabir Bham and members of the Salaam Peace team are available for interview or filming at their community programmes by request. Please contact Sabir on sab@salaampeace.org or 07949 983500.

Salaam Peace have been delivering football related activity at Leyton Sixth Form College.

For a long time, Salaam Peace have been supporting students at Leyton Sixth Form College (LSC) to access meaningful leadership opportunities in the community. 

After becoming more and more aware of the positive impact this was having on the confidence and maturity of the college’s students, LSC sought to formalise its partnership with Salaam Peace. Since January 2016, Salaam Peace have been delivering football related activity at LSC; encompassing a coaching programme for the college’s competitive teams, match day coaching at competitive fixtures, developmental coaching sessions open to all students and intra-college 5-a-side programmes. 

It has been impressive to see the positive impact of the work of Salaam Peace on the many students they have interacted with at LSC over the past four years. Football participation is thriving, and although there is a firm focus on football performance, this is balanced with a clear focus on the personal development of the college’s young people too. 

Through this partnership, students have also been encouraged to access clear pathways into a range of exciting opportunities through Salaam Peace’s diverse and impressive community programme. It has been a joy to see many of LSC’s students make the journey from sports participant, to volunteer, to qualified coach and employee with Salaam Peace.

Many thanks to Sab, Nugent and the team for a great four years, with the college looking forward to continuing its partnership into the future.

Original Aritcle: http://www.londonfa.com/news/2019/nov/08/leyton-sixth-form-college-celebrate-4-years-of-working-with-salaam-peace

Salaam Peace was recently featured on ITV regional news programmes, to promote a tennis initiative run by the LTA to coincide with Wimbledon.  Click to watch the feature as it appeared on “Westcountry Today