Listen
to Us Conference Beginning one of many youth conferences planned for this year, the BCAF-sponsored Listen to Us project held its event on Saturday 19th April at the Showroom Cinema. This saw a turn out of many young people from Burngreave and its surrounding area and was facilitated and opened by Owen Wright and two guest speakers. Lloyd LS Samuels spoke about his childhood in Birmingham and a life drawn into crime. Being arrested for the first time led to him being harassed by police as a suspect for everything bad taking place in his area. Moving to Sheffield, Lloyd joined a community group called BMTT who he says helped him get into filming and find himself a steady way of life. Janice Young is a successful black solicitor, who fights against racism cases. She spoke of her upbringing and struggle to achieve success in her career. After a break for sandwiches and lemonade Owen and facilitators broke us into theme groups representing, housing, health, crime and sports. I was in the housing theme group and although many points came out of these discussions, due to the low turn out, I could hardly see these groups as representing the larger majority of Burngreave’s youths. Finally concluding the day’s events with a film called Four Wheels and a Baby. Event organisers, Owen Wright and Nolen Rankin, received a warm clap of appreciation from those attending. Reporting on behalf of the Messenger and staying thoughout the whole day, I feel this kind of event is a way forward to hearing the views of this youth generation. Owen Wright, conference organiser from the Listen to Us project said “I’m proud of these 85 young people, aged 12–25 years from the Burngreave area who have volunteered their time to support and create a better young peoples resource for the future. Negative press about the area is undeserved, the future bodes well for us when these young people see the importance of taking part.”
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