Stephen Naysmith

Project helps girls excluded from mainstream activities, finding ways to balance cultural complexities.

AMONG the many remarkable examples of youth work set to be highlighted at the National Youth Worker of the Year Awards this week, the efforts of Edinburgh’s Sikh Sanjog are worth highlighting.

The awards, hosted by Youthlink Scotland, cover a whole host of activities from charities, youth clubs and uniformed organisations across the country.

Sikh Sanjog, which grew out of the youth activities of a Sikh women’s group founded 25 years ago, is a contender for the team of the year for Innovative Practice. What they do is certainly innovative, and challenging.

Working with girls excluded from mainstream activities, they find ways not just to involve girls in the activities, but to reshape the activities themselves. That means looking at the practices of youth work organisations to show them better ways of being inclusive. For some girls in minority communities, including some from Sikh backgrounds, but also non-Sikhs, from Kurdistan, and Pakistan, getting involved in activities such as the popular Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme is immediately problematic. Families may object to overnight stays, but they can be essential to completing a given award.

So the charity has worked closely with the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme to find ways to adapt the awards to be more culturally aware. According to Youth Development Manager at Sikh Sanjog Khaleda Noon, one of the results is that DofE participants in Edinburgh are more culturally diverse than anywhere in Scotland.

The scheme has already been delivered in five secondary schools, leading to formal links with Edinburgh’s Royal High School which will now see the leadership course developed by the charity delivered in the state school as part of the curriculum, with DofE qualifications available to participants.

Ms Noon explains. “We have been working with diverse communities, including Sikh, Polish, Pakistani and Scottish girls who may not usually access mainstream services. They could be girls who may not be engaging at school, or really quiet girls.”

But in relation to minority groups, some organisations, including schools can still be relatively unaware of the issues facing girls, she says.

“Everybody believes they treat everyone equally, but if you can’t find a way to allow respect for their culture but also respect for their rights as a young person to choose to have prospects, to have education etc, then girls can slip through the net.”

Some leave school with As and Bs never to make use of them, she says. These are in many cases third and fourth generation Scots-born girls, not newly arrived immigrants. “They need help in balancing their own culture and wanting to be Scottish as well. All these schools have all these girls falling through the net.”

Regardless of whether it wins an award, the project is already attracting interest at Holyrood. Ms Noon has been invited by Presiding Officer, Tricia Marwick MSP to take part in her forthcoming Inspiring Women event at the parliament on March 23.

In relation to minority groups, some organisations can be relatively unaware of the issues facing girls