The Young Leaders Fund – a crowdfunding campaign that aims to raise £30K – has been launched by Joyclen Brodie-Mends, Manager of Concorde Youth Club in Hackney, to provide resources to young people who helped their local community through the worst of the COVID19 pandemic.
Throughout lock down young people from the Kingsmeade Estate, Hackney collaborated with food collective Made Up Kitchen to provide 1000 hot meals and 150 shopping bags a week to nourish their diverse community during the pandemic. The young people packed food, made deliveries to neighbours and documented the journey – with local young filmmakers ACP Network borrowing equipment to shoot, edit and showcase the project.
Dannii Joyette-Hadaway, a local resident, said of the effort. “The Concorde Youth Hub have been absolutely amazing throughout the pandemic…I’ve personally watched the Managers of Concorde & the young people transform the community.”
The Leaders Fund aims to address core inequalities to help create long term change by providing young people with vital equipment such as laptops to complete schoolwork, film making equipment and an international trip.
Joyclen Brodie-Mends says, “Providing young people with the means to tell their own stories so they so they can change the narrative of how young black people are portrayed is fundamentally important. We want to accompany this with an international trip to like-minded organisations in the West Indies and Africa so that they can experience their heritage beyond the area we live in.”
Kiran Chahal of Made Up Kitchen adds. “At a time when the country is talking about systemic racism, we need to step up and see that it is up to each of us to readdress imbalances to make sure future generations have opportunities to flourish. Our young people don’t have the same support, opportunities and finances that others take for granted. Rather than just feed people for today, we want your help so that they can have better long-term opportunities.”
To support the campaign visit:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/young-leaders-fund-concorde-centre-hackney
