Article appeared in The Philip Lawrence Awards Magazine 2006

The Rathbone Outreach Project based in Tower Hamlets, London won a Philip Lawrence Award in 2005 for their work advancing racial, cultural and religious harmony within the local area. The project provides opportunities for young people to demonstrate good citizenship through activities such as cleaning up local estates. Young people also do volunteer work including peer mentoring which involves meeting with their peers to discuss local issues. This provides them with various opportunities, including learning leader-ship, communication and teamwork skills, gaining advice, college and work placements. Winning the Award has increased the young people’s self-esteem and confidence, and gets them recognition and credibility within their local area.

After the visit to London to collect their Award, one young person said: “Realistically I would never have graduated because education doesn’t educate me. But just going up on that stage, dressing up, meeting those people, in front of my family - I will never forget that.” Joynal, age 20, reflects: “I have been involved in the Rathbone Outreach Project since I was 16 or 17 and I’m 20 now. I started at the project on a training course in business administration, and then I became a volunteer helping other young people. I really like doing something for the community, and I’d like to do youth work as a job rather than volunteering, so I’m doing a course in youth work at the moment. “Before the Philip Lawrence Award, people didn’t take much notice of us but the Award is prestigious and recognised, and now everyone has started listening to us and taking notice of what we do. It made a huge impact – the community is now prioritising us. I feel proud to be part of an organisation that won an award.