Knife Crime in the Community Conference

As part of our community engagement activities to increase the awareness of the drivers of Knife Crime in the community, we recently worked with a new organisation called Somali Speakers, which is a group of concerned community organisers who undertake outreach activities across London to spread a message of peace and dialogue on current community related issues, including knife crime.

The event was recorded by Content Over Everything, a YouTube content creator channel with over 45,000 subscribers. See below for the presentation and discussions.

RISE Youth Club Bruce Grove

RISE Projects is proud to launch a new weekly activity for young people in Haringey. The RISE Youth Club creates a safe space for young people every Tuesday evening, to engage young people through positive organised activities. We have partnered up with Haringey Youth Space, at No. 10 Bruce Grove to deliver this vital weekly activity. As part of our early intervention efforts to keep young people safe, this weekly activity is timely but also provides an added value to our youth engagement activities in Haringey.

Over the next couple of months, the RISE Youth Club will engage and support young Somali people in Haringey through mentoring and other organised activities. Creating a youth space, where young people can come, learn new skills and develop positive relationships will enable us to support 16-24 year olds in Haringey.

UCAS DAY

UCAS DAY, an annual event organised by the Inter-University Somali Societies took place on 22nd September 2019, at the Institute of Education in central London. The event was organised to support young people understand the university application process, gain useful tips from current university students and professionals on how to write a successful personal statement. The half-day event was attended by over 200 young people, majority of whom were in years 12 and 13, the latter year group will begin their UCAS application in January next year for entry for September 2020.

This year RISE Projects was a sponsor of the event and it was a great opportunity for us to do some outreach and engagement with young people from across London. Our stall was visited by many young people who had questions about how to achieve their goals, mentoring and how to get the results they need to get into their chosen university.

Visit the official UCAS website for useful tips and advice.

Rise Your Net Worth Mentoring Programme Launched

The RISE Your Net Worth Mentoring Programme is a tailored, monthly mentoring networking programme for graduates and young people with professionals to help you to develop your career goals. This innovative 6 month mentoring programme, will pair recent graduates and those who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs), with professionals to access additional professional training, employment and development opportunities starts later this month. Congrats to all those who have been selected to take part in this first round of mentoring and networking.

If you would like more information about the mentoring programme, please contact Fatima Warsame on fatima@riseprojects.org.uk

RISE Careers Event 2019

On Saturday 20th July RISE Project organised its annual careers event, where we brought together Somali professionals and graduates for our inaugural RISE Your Net Worth Careers Event.

The networking and careers event was designed for young people and professionals well established in their careers to meet, networking and to share career information and advice to access opportunities. Over a 100 people, majority of whom were young graduates, attended the event and will now take part in our innovative 6 month mentoring programme, which will pair recent graduates and those who are not in education, employment or training, with professionals and access additional employment or development opportunities.

The careers event formed part of our youth engagement in Haringey to show young people there are opportunities to develop themselves and to learn new skills and to grow their career prospects. We organised the event to also show a positive side to the Somali community in Haringey, and away from the usual negative narratives of knife crime, anti-social behaviour and involvement in serious youth violence. It was inspiring to see so many young people, parents and professionals come to the event to progress and further develop themselves as well as giving back to their community to uplift one another.

The event was also an opportunity to launch our 6 month mentoring programme, pairing young graduates and NEETs people with professionals over the next 6 months, with the view of the young people professionally developing themselves and learning from their mentors to ensure that they can access valuable opportunities, information and advice. We plan to organise monthly meetings until March 2020 for the mentors and mentees to meet up.

As well as networking, particular time was given to a panel discussion on the importance of networking and why its crucial to improve your networking skills to further increase your chances of landing key career opportunities. The panel discussion were composed of Dr. Samira Hassan, a GP and community activist, Hafsa Isse, a Marketing Manager, Amel Abshir, an Infrastructure Engineer, Awale Elmi, Director of RISE Projects and Mustafa Dugsiye, a Finance Professional.

Watch the panel discussions above on our YouTube Channel.

RISE Your Net Worth Somali Careers Event

RISE Projects presents RISE Your Net Worth Careers Event. This is an opportunity for university students and new professionals to network with established professionals.

An opportunity for university students and recent professionals to form meaningful connections with established professionals from a range of fields - from Business, Healthcare, IT, Education and Civil Service and many more. Join our conversation and build your net worth and connections to help you progress and flourish in your field.

There will also be an opportunity to engage with our professionals in a more structured setting - limited places available!

Sign up your interest to avoid disappointment. Register here on Eventbrite

RISE Director Awale Elmi on BBC News discussing Knife Crime

RISE Projects Director Awale Elmi appeared on BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Show to discuss the disproportionality of young Somali men being fatally stabbed and the consequence of parents sending their children back to East Africa to avoid being killed, groomed or being exploited by criminal gangs involved in county-lines.

Speaking along side other Somali community leaders and professionals, Awale explained the complex reasons behind why so many young Somali men are being killed in the UK. Ahead of the studio discussion, RISE Projects worked with BBC producers to undertake a short research to analyse the number of young Somali people fatally stabbed in the UK.

Of the 100 people stabbed to death in the UK so far this, 8% were of Somali heritage. This is particularly concerning when the UK Somali population accounts for less than 0.5% at its highest estimated figure of 300,000. The high number of fatal stabbings has resulted in hundreds of British Somali teenagers are being sent by their parents to East Africa to avoid knife crime in the UK.

RISE Projects works towards reducing serious youth violence in Haringey

As part of its community engagement efforts RISE Projects recently organised a community discussion on serious youth violence with local parents and key statutory stakeholders to see how serious youth violence can be reduced within the Somali community. More than ever now, it’s become an urgent priority for a seldom heard group such as the Somali community to work closely with statutory services providers such as MPS Haringey and Haringey Council to find solutions to the problem serious youth violence and knife crime.

International Women's Day Video

As part of International Women's Day 2019, RISE Projects were fortune enough to speak to women in Haringey about their thoughts on womanhood and International Women's Day 2019.

We spoke to several entrepreneurs, to explore the importance of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month. Here's a short video we put together of their thoughts and experiences.

RISE Projects Works with Heartland High School in Wood to mentor students

RISE Projects has recently started a new mentoring programme with Somali students at Heartlands High School in Wood Green.

The mentoring programme which will start 28th February 2019, will go on until the end of the academic year, meaning students will benefit from 15 weeks of weekly mentoring activities. We will work with two groups of students aged between 12 to 15 for 3 hours a week, working with 20 students all together.

We are very happy to invited to work with Heartlands High School, following on from our earlier success in working with other schools in Haringey. The mentoring programme is part of our Safer Schools early intervention approach to tackling serious youth violence and knife crime among young Somali students in Haringey.

Park View Academy Student completed RISE Mentoring Programme

Students from Park View Academy took part in RISE projects six-week mentoring programme for Somali boys. Boys from Years 9 and 10 were part of the Mentorship programme. They participated in six sessions covering topics on: family life, future career plans, community safety, health and well-being, mental and emotional well-being, online safety and personal development plans. The final session was a celebration, where students received their certificates.

““I can say with confidence that the students got a lot out of the personal development programme. From our first session covering successful Somali roles models to goal setting and decision making workshop, to the career development workshop, discussions on resilience, personal branding and our last workshop on community safety and knife crime.” - Awale Elmi, Director RISE Projects”

RISE Projects featured in Haringey People Magazine

RISE Projects were featured in the Haringey People Magazine for February and March’s edition. This is a really opportunity for us to showcase the work we’ve been doing to support young people in Haringey particularly around community safety. This isn’t the first time we’ve been nominated for a Community safety award. During the 2017 Haringey Impact Awards RISE Projects were highly commended in two categories including Best Newcomer Award as well as being highly commended for improving Community Safety and Environment in Haringey.

Sister's Circle - A new mentoring initiative for BAME women in Haringey launched!

The Sister’s Circle which is a new initiative by RISE Projects to engage young BAME women in Haringey to support them to improve their live outcomes through personal development, mentoring and career guidance.

The Sister’s Circle, which is targeted in working with women aged between 16-30 years is an innovative projects which seeks to create a platform for developing new skills, networking and being part of a network of peer-mentors, some of whom are well established in careers. The Sister Circle empowers women who are on the fringes of society and who face social isolation and alienation to access employment and educational pathways. Each meeting covers topical themes such as well-being, mental health, hate crime, women’s empowerment and personal development and career development. Join us to take part and look out for our next meetings on our events page and social media links.

First Meeting of the Sister Circle - 16th January 2019

RISE Project wins an Award for Community Safety and Improving the Environment

RISE Projects was a winner at annual Community Impact Awards organised by The Bridge Renewal Trust. RISE Project won a Community Impact Award for the Community Safety and Improving the Environment category.

The 2018 Haringey Community and Voluntary Sector Expo took place on the 29 November 2018 at Tottenham Town Hall. With over 700 people attending. The event was a celebration of the outstanding achievements of Haringey’s Voluntary and Community Sector. There were stalls, presentations and performances which all aimed to show some of the amazing work that goes on in Haringey.

The Community Impact Awards are given annually to grassroots community groups, voluntary organisations and schools that have combined effective community service with innovative and sustainable practices to improve the lives of Haringey residents.

RISE Projects marks National Hate Crime Awareness Weeks in Haringey

RISE Projects in partnership with Haringey Council and MPS Haringey, organised as part of National Hate Crime Awareness Week, a community discussion on Hate Crime. The event was very well attended and many discussions occurred where members of the Somali community expressed their concerns about hate crime incidents in the borough. We organised this event with the view of improving the Somali community’s understanding of hate crime and improving the community’s knowledge base of reporting hate crime incidences. The event gave a platform for people to come together and to ask questions about hate crime in a safe community space and to speak to statutory agencies about their experiences and raise any concerns they may have about hate crime.