Building Better Communities

We aim to provide a new opportunity for young isolated migrants, mainly from Eastern European countries, at the ages of 12-18 who have been introduced to this country by various reasons, in the hope that they can create a better quality of life. These young people become very isolated within the routines of family life, language barriers and often discrimination at school, therefore, do not get the opportunities to integrate, make friends and find a common ground with others.

Our organisation aims to bring these young people together initially to spark an experience that can progress with further help and guidance. This will hopefully happen with the use of Art and Photography sessions delivered by experienced, multilingual trainers.   

We are trying to achieve a more integrated community through youth. Our communities taking part in gatherings of similar people, with similar issues, can create a larger catalyst which in effect would grow into the perspective family units.  By the parent’s decision of relocation, young people struggle with the trauma of change, leaving their previous life and friends behind. If we do not bring these people out of their own shells, they will suffocate in their own surroundings. This points out the importance of a project such as this and other projects like this. Without falling into the area of predicting future events, isolated young people have hidden behaviour problems which tend to surface later in their lives.  By providing somewhere to express themselves, with others, without the suffocation of their own frustrations, enable the participants to come out of their shells and integrate in a more open manner which would allow the expressions of feelings and open avenues for better communication with their peers.   

The sessions will be delivered by our committed, experienced, multilingual and qualified artists and photographer and provide an opportunity for our young participants at the ages of 12-18 to express their personal skills, fears and creativity. We will deliver 15 art and 15 photography sessions to groups of a minimum of 8 young people and each session will last 3 - 4 hours.  We aim to engage a minimum of 30 young people into art and photography, buy photography and art equipment and organise an exhibition of their work as well as print a book of young migrants’ work.  By having this set of goals, we should be able to bring the community together along with a sense of pride for producing something valuable in the end.

Our project will support young, disadvantages migrants mainly, but not exclusively from Eastern European countries. Young people who come to the UK with their parents at the ages of 12-18 often struggle with finding themselves in their new circumstances, due to language and cultural barriers. They have left all their life behind them. Their school friends, sometimes their first loves too and moved with their parents to a new country where they have had to start everything from the beginning.  Alone, isolated and with feelings of being different and not accepted by others, looking to fit in and to find a sense of belonging, left alone with their problems as their parents try to make a living and work many hours per day. So, lonely and depressed, they easily lose their confidence and self-esteem, they don't have any sense of belonging and they are more vulnerable to various gangs and organisations for easy recruitment.  Young migrants are affected by the trauma of relocation, so we will provide opportunities for them to regulate their stress, reduce isolation and develop new skills and friendships.  

Our aim is to support these disadvantaged young migrants to help them to integrate and develop a sense of belonging by boosting their confidence and self-esteem and building relations with other members of our local community through art and photography sessions. Migrants are experiencing exclusion, isolation, prejudice and mental health issues. We want to help them to find their way in a new country and try to make them feel at home. 

If there were more people with time and resources to point towards these young people, the aim of this project would be a lot easier and the results would certainly become more evident through statistics and visible results within the communities in which we have spoken about.

During the first 5 years, the premises of NS4U CIC, which are situated in Bell Green/Henley area of Coventry has become a point of contact and support for migrants mainly from Eastern Europe. NS4U CIC enjoys the confidence and trust of migrants and other disadvantaged residents in Coventry. The organisation is run and managed mainly by migrants with experience of the migration, adaptation and integration journey. We communicate in European Languages and can therefore reach specific groups of people in Coventry.  

The service which we provide add value to current services available in Coventry, as we are providing our expertise and support to many organisations already. 

The support offered by NS4U includes careers counselling and IAG services in various languages by individually booked appointments and drop in sessions, volunteering opportunities, workshops and unregulated employability training, ESOL, cross training: team work, confidence building, motivational skills, assertiveness and self-awareness will provide access to some regulated training and qualifications.    

During the last 5 years, we have built our reputation among clients and local organisations based on the quality of delivery of various projects.

During our work with Eastern European migrants we have realised that there is a huge gap in specific support for teenagers age 12-18. We discussed our project with parents as well as young people and decided to proceed with organising Art and photography classes for this group of migrants. Last year we started art classes for children age 6-12 and since then we had many questions about teenagers. Many isolated teenagers are finding our centre as a harbour, where they can come, talk with someone about their problems at schools, volunteer during various different events and build their confidence and sense of belonging. 

Many of them talk about their passions and seeking opportunity to evolve their hobbies in a safe and friendly environment of people similar to them. 

We believe that starting this project we would be able to offer support to many young people, help them to develop through their passion, making new connections and building bridges, building high self-esteem and confidence, therefore reducing isolation growing pride through achievement. 

"Art is an international tool and language that can be used by anyone, and reaches everyone without any chains"

We aim to deliver 15 of art and 15 of photography classes – 3-4 hours each to minimum of 30 young people. 

Delivery including tutors, admin and facilities will cost £6000

We will buy basic photography and art equipment which will cost £3000 and promotional material, advertisement and exhibition will cost £1000

If we will raise more money, we would be able to purchase more equipment for young people and deliver more classes. 

Due to Covid 19 situation we aim to start our project regardless of the amount raised, so any support will be gratefully received.