Michael Causer Foundation partners with Your Housing Group & Everton Free School and others in educating young people about the City’s diverse communities.
Courtesy of a small grant from Your Housing Group, the Michael Causer Foundation worked closely with our friends at Everton Free School to deliver a broad-ranging Embracing Diversity event to over 100 Y9-Y11 pupils on Friday 23rd October. The Everton, Anfield & Tuebrook area is a hotspot on Merseyside for homophobic and transphobic hate crime and hate crimes against those with disabilities and ethnic minorities are also too common locally.
The day got off to an energetic start with some superb Capoeira (a Brazilian art form combining music, culture, acrobatics and martial arts) moves from Michael and Akil from Capoeira for All and Dove Ross-Williams and his dancers and rapper treated us to an eye-catching performance at lunchtime.
Michael Causer Foundation’s project worker, Rhea Fennell-Rutherford and volunteer Sue Logie, designed and facilitated a number of engaging and highly interactive workshops which really drew out some fascinating debate and learning from the Everton Free School students.
If there were any remote doubt about the need for and value of our work, this pledge was written by one of the young people in attendance:
The Foundation also secured the collaboration of a plethora of local charities, voluntary groups, community groups and social enterprises to brief the young people on some of the issues faced by their client groups, including:
- The Anthony Walker Foundation – promoting racial harmony through education, sport and the arts http://anthonywalkerfoundation.com/
- Moving On With Life & Learning – social inclusion for those with learning disabilities / mental health issues – http://www.mowll.org.uk/
- Daisy Inclusive UK – supporting the disabled community’s transition from inactivity and social exclusion to activity and inclusion http://daisyuk.co.uk/background/
- Life Story Network – dementia awareness – educating, empowering & enabling – http://www.lifestorynetwork.org.uk/
- Greenbank College & Sports Academy – enhancing the opportunities and status of people with disabilities through education, training, employment, transport, sport & recreation – http://greenbank-project.org.uk/
- Capoeira for All CIC -uses the practice, values and ethos of Capoeira for positive social change http://www.capoeiraforall.org/
- WAC Arts Up North – empowering young people through performance art – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U38n2mhiUrw
- Everton Free School’s team – Art for All and E-safety /cyber-bullying awareness
Chief Executive, Stuart St V Fitzgerald expressed his sincere thanks to Claire Lamontagne, Philip Duffy and Richard Cronin and the whole Everton Free School staff for making the Foundation and our partners so welcome in preparing for and delivering this inspiring event.
Our gratitude is also due to our partners and collaborators listed above for helping us create a truly engaging day in support of local young people and our diverse communities.
Special thanks too to Rhea for all her hard work in producing the programme for this project and to Sue Logie for bearing her heart again for the Foundation in sharing her own very real experiences of homophobic hate crime with each group of young people.