Young K&C Member Spotlight November 2021: Baraka Community Association

Watch the video (or read the text transcript) below to find out more about their organisation and what they do.

Text Transcript

Can you tell us who Baraka Community Association are and how you support young people?

So my name is Mohammed Senhaji, I'm known as Mo. I work for Baraka Community Association, which are based in North Kensington. My role is youth mentor, youth worker and boxing coach. Baraka Community Association has been established for around 20 years plus. They work with vulnerable youngsters, they work with families, they support families and we do a lot of work regarding mental health and health and wellbeing.

So a lot of the activities we do in Baraka, such as cooking classes for the young girls, we do basketball, we do boxing, we do kayaking and also a lot of residential trips. We've got a few projects such as bike maintenance, we do magnet fishing and many other activities.

So at Baraka, we do a lot of work with the local police, other organisations. We do a lot of collaborations as well. We actually have a team of outreach workers where we go out and speak to youngsters. We will signpost them and encourage them to get into education, apprenticeships and help them into work. We actually do IT classes as well for people that want to learn more about IT. We do homework clubs, maths and English and any other support that we can do.

What are some of the challenges faced by the young people you work with and how do you support them?

So the challenges that I've seen that the young people of Baraka Community Association are facing mainly at the moment was after the lockdown, with the social isolation, a lot of the young people hadn't seen anyone in a really long time.

There was a lot of isolation with the lockdown and the social distancing. When the kids came back, a lot of them were a lot quieter and a lot more withdrawn. So coming back now, we've been doing a lot of cooking sessions, giving the kids some first hand skills, doing some cooking, doing a lot of social activities. And within a few sessions, the kids are building up their confidence. They're becoming a lot more chatty with each other.

So we're seeing the children building their confidence and socialising a lot more. We've become over subscribed with our sessions, there are so many kids who want to join that we've had to split the groups. The children are trying new foods and meeting new kids everyday.

Where can young people go to find out more and get involved?

Young people and parents can find us on our email or contact us via telephone, which can be seen in front of you now.

020 8964 0606 or abdullahi.ali@baraka.london