Marylebone Bangladesh Society

“Working with Young People today for Tomorrow’s Community”

Following a successful bid to the Department for Communities and Local Government, the project aims to work with the most vulnerable and socially excluded young people from the minority ethnic and Arabic speaking communities in Westminster.

The project aims to bring young people from the different communities, faiths and race to promote a shared sense of belonging.

Marylebone Bangladesh Society’s Community Cohesion Project has been actively working to meet the four key objectives of Community Cohesion as defined by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

These being:
• A common vision and sense of belonging to all communities;
• The valuing of diversity;
• Similar life opportunities for all;
• Strong  and positive relationships are being developed between people of different backgrounds and circumstances within the workplace, in the school and with neighbourhoods.

One of our key objectives of the project is to improve relationship amongst young people to reduce youth conflicts. The key aim of this service is to encourage young people aged 13 – 25 from different faiths/cultural backgrounds to participate in issue-based workshops and cohesive activities.

In the first year, the project has been primarily focused on creating a core group of young people to work with, building trust and partnership understanding with partner organisation, and generally promoting the service at all levels. 

Project launch - June 2007
In June 2007 the Project held its launch at St Paul’s Church; the launch attracted almost 100 members from the local community with guest speakers ranging from Leader of the Council Sir Simon Milton, Councillors, Head of Youth Service, and Faith Leaders.

It was one of the first times, if not the first, where faith representatives from Judaism, Christianity and Islam joined together to show support for such project, with a message to strengthen greater understanding and dialogue.

Faith representatives included:
• Rabbi Alexandra Wright - St John’s Wood Liberal Jewish Synagogue        
• Patrick King - St Paul’s Church – Pastoral Assistant                    
• Sheikh Salah Al Ansari - Imam Central London Mosque & I.C.C

For further information please contact Akbar Hussain - Youth Development Worker