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Voice of the North:

Reflections on the Northern Youth Experience

Daniel Silver & Ratna Lachman

August 2011

Project Background
The Voice of the North Project brings together a partnership between key partners working for and with young people in the North of England. The majority of the young people are from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds and from a range of the North s most deprived areas. The project has been designed to: Assert a youth voice and perspective in the current discourse and analysis on the role of Government policy, drawing on the experience of Northern youth communities The rejection of the politics of the Other by getting young people to work together to address the structural, systemic and institutional basis of their poverty, disadvantage and exclusion The development of direct links between young people and policy makers that will enhance the understanding that policy makers and politicians have on issues that directly impact on young people. The empowerment of young people through positive youth engagement using democratic processes to influence change

The project has been underway since November 2010, in which over forty young people have been involved in sessions with their youth workers and in community centres to discuss a wide range of issues that they felt were important to them. This has also included media training workshops and the development of a YouTube channel, which can be seen here: www.youtube.com/user/TheVOICEOFTHENORTH

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the young people involved in the project, who shared their views, experiences and expertise with us. Also, thank you to the youth workers who enabled the sessions to happen. These organisations were: Union Street Media Arts (Old Trafford) JUST West Yorkshire Trinity House Community Resource Centre (Manchester) Manchester Active Voices Empowerment Project Unity Youth (Liverpool) Pakistan Advice and Community Association (Sheffield)

Introduction
These are challenging times for young people, with a huge rise in unemployment and a severe restriction of opportunities. The impact of Government cuts is being felt more acutely in the North of England at a time when power is being centralised in London under the auspices of localism. The massive public sector cuts without an accompanying private sector infrastructure to generate employment and revenue in the North has left young people reliant on public services adrift. There is a clear geography of disadvantage, in which the young people in the North are becoming increasingly impoverished and disenfranchised. Within this context, BME young people are being disproportionately affected as a result of their race and poverty and over-concentration of BME communities in deprived areas: thirty percent of the North West s BME population live in the region s top five most deprived districts, a pattern which is repeated in the Yorkshire and Humber region where one out of two young children are growing up in poverty. The Government s decision to withdraw Area Based Grant funding, which offered regeneration schemes to reverse urban decline, has effectively left our young people without the support structures that had previously existed to mitigate the challenges all young people are facing. The commensurate decimation of youth services that have accompanied the swingeing cuts in public budgets has effectively left society without the tools needed to tackle youth disadvantage and alienation.

Voice of the North: Shared Statements

Twenty young people from across the North, with ages ranging from eleven to twenty-four came together in July to discuss and debate current coalition Government policy. Despite the ranges in age and geography, participants felt that: All of us have similarities . This commonality of experience has revealed a dynamic of exclusion that desperately needs to be addressed. This has become even more pertinent in light of recent youth disturbances. These debates are summarised below and have been developed further by One North West and JUST West Yorkshire. At a time when young people are being ascribed negative and damaging labels following the youth disturbances that are spreading across the country, it is imperative that we take stock of what young people are telling us and respond to meet their needs. The Voice of the North young people said that: They experience discrimination as a result of ethnicity and age There is a lack of choice available for young people Aspirations are being constrained leading to hopelessness The voice of young BME people in the North is not being listened to by Government

Everyday Experiences of Being Failed by Public Institutions

Education: The young people reported that they experience discrimination and are being failed in schools, which leads to educational disadvantage and ultimately an erosion of their prospects. There was a sense that some teachers do not put the effort into children that might require more support in order to achieve their potential. Education is a fundamental human right to all and consideration must be given to those young people that are being let down by the current system. There is a racial dimension to this disadvantage. The persistently poor performance of young Asians in Bradford s inner-city schools generation after generation; the disproportionate exclusions of young Black Caribbean males in many of the schools in the North of England; the absence of BME undergraduates in many of the Russell group universities in the North - Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield - highlights the systemic and structural education divide that young BME people face. The young people said that in their schools, there were higher levels of exclusion amongst BME people. This is backed up by national statistics, which shows that Black Caribbean pupils are three times more likely to be permanently excluded than the school population as a whole. Furthermore, several of the young people commented that racist behaviour by other pupils had been unchallenged by teachers, which certainly does not provide the learning environment we would wish for our children. It was felt that the rise of academies, which operate outside of local authority control, would exacerbate this situation. Criminalisation of Youth: The disproportionate levels of Stop and Search was discussed and it was felt that if you are wearing certain clothes, or in a certain group that you will be picked up on. There is a Section 30 dispersal order (Anti-Social Behaviour Act, 2003) in place around the youth club in Liverpool, which points to the wider criminalisation of young BME people. Although minority ethnic groups make up 11% of the population in England and Wales, twenty five percent of the prison population is now from a minority ethnic background. Three out of four young Black men, aged between 15 and 34, have records on the DNA database and Black men are 8 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white men. These statistics point to the disempowerment of young people and many of the youth involved in the Voice of the North fear that the criminalisation of young people will diminish their future prospects. Negative Perceptions: The negative stereotyping of young people is unhelpful and many of the participants felt negatively judged by society in a way that does not reflect their true character. The media was widely implicated in perpetuating images of young people as anti-social, even feral . This perception is also the case with Government and politicians, and is reflected through the way in which youth policy is framed. Young people are seen as problems rather than solutions. This was considered to be part of an emerging dynamic in our society that individualised blame, whilst at the same time ignoring the wider structural inequalities that contributed to the marginalisation of young people. Intersectionality: The young people from the Voice of the North felt that they were being doubly discriminated because of their ethnicity and their age. This intersection of disadvantage is something that needs to be more closely understood by policy-makers in the context of youth experience. Only by understanding the complex identities that shape young people s lives, can we provide solutions in policy terms. If Government develops policy without the knowledge, conceptual tools or data required to fully understand the needs of BME young people, then these policies will continue to fail our young people in the future as they have in the past.

The Paradox of Choice

The young people involved in the Voice of the North highlighted a restriction in the choices that are available for their futures. It was felt that the current design and implementation of policy is limiting hope and aspiration for many of our young people. This reveals a paradox that is at the heart of current Government policy, in which their public service reform agenda promotes choice as a key principle but in fact does not reflect the needs of young people within the policy paradigm. This points to a fundamental flaw in Government policy: the absence of a social justice framework. Therefore, current policy will only widen the power imbalance and inequality, between the powerful and powerless in society. To compound matters, Government policy is being developed without participation from young people, especially those below democratic age:

Government is making decisions that people do not like and are not right for anyone .

This is particular the case with Northern, BME young people where the structures of government away from Whitehall become even more remote the further North you travel. There is increasing a sense of hopelessness amongst our young people. One participant said that:

I am afraid I will not fulfil my life ambitions .

This sentiment was echoed by the majority of young people. The scrapping of educational maintenance allowance and the rise in tuition fees, resulting in an increase in the cost of learning and reduction in support, was identified as a major issue that restricted young people s future options. The Government s Social Mobility Strategy claims to focus on inter-generational social mobility, ensuring that everyone has a fair chance get a better job than their parents. The current feelings of young people suggests more Government thinking and participation of youth is required The rise in tuition fees has been mired in controversy. The Government points out that graduates will not pay back the debts until they achieve a certain income threshold. However, for many young people university appears to be out of reach. One thirteen year old said that:

I want to go to uni, but it is just the money .

With the widespread lack of jobs and unemployment which is often intergenerational, taking on such a sizeable debt appears to be an unreasonable gamble to make. The spread of this perception has devastating effects, not just to potential university entrants, but for many young people that have had their aspirations limited at an early age. One of the participants commented that: Once young people s mindset is taken off university, we don t strive as much in school .

This is a hugely worrying trend and one which policy-makers must consider if they are serious about social mobility and equality. If this becomes entrenched, there will be impacts that will be felt for generations to come. It was felt that the recession and subsequent public sector cuts were impacting on young people. This could be through the loss of a youth club, provision of services or the significant reduction in household income, which means that there are less recreational activities available. This results in more pressure at home . The Government s rhetoric promotes the importance of the family, however the capacity of families to provide an effective safety net is being compromised as many are falling into poverty. This has an impact on young people, their families and ultimately their communities, which one young person said are currently under severe strain . This all contributes towards the further marginalisation of young people, with one participant poignantly noting that:

The issues all link up in a negative cycle and it is really hard to get out again .

Government policy is currently perpetuating generational poverty and constraining young people within a life in which aspiration has been denied. This will inevitably lead to hopelessness and eventually frustration and anger amongst some young people.

Youth Disturbances
The current youth disturbances that have affected our major cities are to be condemned but they must be understood. David Cameron s response was that: This is criminality pure and simple, and it has to be confronted and defeated . However, whilst no one would wish to condone looting, burning and attacks on the police, it is also the case that focussing on the easy targets the so-called feral youths with their hoodies and face masks - avoids the harder questions the riots raise about the culpability of government policy. This is not to exclusively blame the public sector cuts, which have served to exacerbate existing tensions, but to call for a more sophisticated analysis of the root causes of the disturbances. The Voice of the North project has provided some fascinating insights into the experiences of young people under the current Government that are being ignored in the dominant narrative. Whilst the catalyst for the Tottenham riots had a racial antecedent, the conflagration that has spread nationally has shown young people that are devoid of hope and aspiration, support and guidance and it presents a pressing case for tackling the poverty and powerlessness of many of our young people. It has also exposed the underbelly of our society in which young people without a stake in society have been mirroring the behaviour of bankers taking whatever they can without regard to the cost to society at large. While they are likely to be served disproportionate jail sentences, the doublestandards and irony implicit in the public bail out of our banks and fat-cat bonuses will not be lost on young people and will merely store up further resentment for the future.

Listening to Our Young People

It is vital that the voice of the young people is listened to and respected. This is currently not the case. Traditional engagement has failed many young people and innovative solutions must be developed. Our young people felt that:

If we put points forward people think that we are being rude and complain about us .

Young people are becoming increasingly powerless and unable to participate in decisions that affect their lives. Not only does this contravene the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, but fundamentally, it simply does not make sense as today s young people transform into tomorrow s citizens. There should be a clear policy framework and programmes that work with young people affected by poverty and racism to develop their potential in order to express their ideas and provide solutions to the problems that affect their lives. Such proactive approaches would restore relationships of trust and confidence between politicians and young people while resulting in policy responses that meet the needs of young people. As one young person eloquently declared:

We should be able to go to Government to express our feelings because at the end of the day, we are the ones living in the situation .

There needs to be a provision of support to empower our young people. One of the young people felt that: All of us have the capacity to do something if we have the tools .

The tragedy is that this agency and potential are being taken away as there are cuts to education, the provision of youth work and opportunities for our young people. Public policy is a course of action that guides future decisions and activity that will take place that affect everyone. Nothing is set in stone; policy development happens by decision-makers choosing a course of action from the different alternatives they have. These choices however have profound consequences for society at large. Austerity measures may deliver short-term financial dividends but the loss of youth hope and aspiration has long-term costs which the recent riots have revealed. We urge the Government to open up possibilities again for all our young people and to provide ways in which young people can raise their voice in Government and be genuinely heard. And we ask: How can we build aspiration for our young people? How will Government include Northern BME young people s voices in decision making? How will Government address discrimination and disadvantage for our young people?

One North West is the regional BME network for the North West. We bring together a unique mix of front line organisations (both rural and urban and across equalities), social enterprise, infrastructure organisations and national partner to provide an informed voice that is reflective of the North West s BME voluntary and community sector and provides policy-makers with a unique insight based on the experience, expertise and knowledge of people from within the sector in order to promote race equality and social justice. For more information, please contact Daniel Silver by Email: daniel.silver@vsnw.org.uk Tel: 0161 276 9305 Website: www.onenorthwest.org.uk

JUST West Yorkshire is a groundbreaking initiative set up by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust in 2003 to promote racial justice in West Yorkshire. Since its establishment JUST has become a leading voice in the North promoting racial justice, civil liberties and human rights. For more information, please contact Ratna Lachman, Director JUST West Yorkshire by Email: ratna@justwestyorkshire.co.uk Tel: 01274 54222