In partnership with Me & You Education and the Home Office, Southend United Community & Educational Trust has been educating Southend’s young people about anti-extremism, anti-radicalism and anti-racism.
Me & You Education Co-Founder, Irfan Chishti, and Associate Trainer and former English Defence League member, Ivan Humble, delivered a series of hour-long assemblies to pupils at St Bernard’s High School in Westcliff-on-Sea in their latest outing.
Prior to that, they visited Cecil Jones Academy, Chase High School, Southend High School for Girls and Victory Park Academy, an Alternative Provision establishment.
The assemblies are designed to raise awareness on far-right extremist dialogue, provide counter arguments to extremist narratives and equip people with the know-how on how to raise a concern.
The motto throughout the day was very much to help encourage the young people to think for themselves.
Chishti commented:
“The core of Me & You Education is all about identity and belonging.
“We’re saying to young people ‘Look, we’re all very different…we’ve all got our own unique aspects of who we are.
“The big message is be comfortable, be confident with who you are.
“All we can hope for is that God forbid, if any of these kids get attacked, experience grooming or get affected by radicalisation, they’ll be able to step back and say ‘Hang on a second, we had that little exercise where we were told how important it was to think for yourself.”
Temi, a Year 9 pupil at St Bernard’s High School, commented:
“I found the assembly really informative.
“It shows how it doesn’t matter what race or gender you are, or anything about you.
“It’s just about your personality and you shouldn’t be judged on your skin colour.”
For more information about SUCET’s Community Cohesion scheme, please visit this page.
For more information about Me & You Education, please visit www.meandyoueducation.co.uk.
© Southend United Community & Educational Trust | Registered Charity No. 1105515
