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Mixing it up

The town of Redditch has lots of different cultural communities: an Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Chinese and an increasing Polish population. Race relations are good, but local teenagers noticed that young people tend to keep within their own ethnic groups, particularly in school.

This situation was something that a group of high school students felt needed changing.  They’re all members of Redditch Student Council, which represents the town’s four high schools and they wanted to find a way of encouraging ethnic groups to mix.

“We thought there was some animosity between the four schools, centred on racial issues and we wanted everyone to get on better” says 17 year old Oliver Dyer, who’s also chair of the Student Council.

“We wanted to do something that brought people together”, adds fellow Council member Daniel Allen, “but above all something that was fun at the same time.  The first idea we came up with was of a multi-cultural event.”

Organising the event

The Student Council hired a local youth centre and invited ethnic groups to share their culture, traditions, art and music.

The event featured:

• music ranging from reggae and bhangra to rock
• Irish and Caribbean dancing
• exhibitions of henna painting
• drumming and DJ workshops
• Chinese, Caribbean, Asian and English food
• a pool competition

The evening was a huge success, with more than 200 people attending. “We had very positive feedback” says Oliver.  “It was a really enjoyable night and everyone was smiling and having fun.”

How the area changed

The group has already noticed a difference: “When I’m walking around Redditch at the weekends, I see students from different schools talking together and I now know more people from other schools myself” says Oliver.

Daniel agrees: “Some people are still in their groups because that’s where they feel comfortable, but more students are mixing now.”

Encouraged by the success of this first event, the students have ambitions to use the prize money from the ‘Actions speak louder…’ competition to organise five more multi-cultural evenings across Worcestershire.  The events will be organised by young people locally, with overall project management resting with Redditch Student Council.  They also want to produce a video of the events to use in schools and youth clubs to promote understanding of different cultures.

Redditch Student Council originally received a grant of £2,500 from Worcestershire County Council’s Youth Opportunity Fund allocation.