Greater Manchester is an increasingly diverse place, with many communities and cultures coexisting and colliding on a daily basis. To generalise and stereotype a city or section of a society that mixed is always going to prove contentious. As someone who grew up as a Mancunian youth I have witness the best and worst of this great city. If I’m honest, my aspirations were never something mocked or ridiculed by my contemporaries, but sadly I noticed that those employed to lead and guide us lacked hope for my future.
I have lived and worked in areas of the city considered by many to be deprived, with high levels of unemployment and low educational attainment as defining features. It has often been said that hopelessness has characterised the neighbourhoods I have called home. This hopelessness is often generational, but young people are not the generation to blame for this badge of dishonour. It was adults nicknamed my school Druggy High, adults who failed to reach their potential that often limits the prospects of the generation following them, adults who fail to be inspirational, limiting the aspirations of the youth of the day: be that the teachers whose judgement of a child’s potential is made by the name before them on the class register or the careers’ guidance worker who encourages the girl aiming to train as a social worker to take work experience at JD Sports.
I was called accidentally from a member of the youth offending team who was in a meeting with one of my young people. The lady had entered my number into her phone intending to call me for an update after the meeting but had pressed send by mistake which meant as I answered the call I was able to listen in on the conversation. I was heartbroken as I listened to this profes sional destroy the aspirations and hopes of one of my young people. She cursed him, defining him as useless, hopeless and helpless. She rejected his potential, overlooked his talents and crushed his confidence all with the intention of pushing him back on the safe and narrow path to success. This approach has to be avoided at all cost. Manchester (and the North as a whole) needs leaders who can talk up communities and be good at gossiping the successes of the city; this needs to filter down to those who influence the next generation
We must assess the leadership of our city by the aspirations of the city’s young people. Now an adult, I am responsible for enabling and empowering the youth of my city. I therefore I must speak hope, life and encouragement, give safe opportunities to succeed and fail and affirm and celebrate young people each step of the way.
Sam Ward, Eden National Director, The Message
