South Yorkshire Police Inspiring Youth Award Ceremony 2007

In February 2007 South Yorkshire Police Recruiting Department in conjunction with the Black Police Association organised the Inspiring Youth seminar.

The event was held as the Sheffield Wednesday Football ground and was attended by groups of ethnic minority children from various schools in the Sheffield area.

The purpose of the event was to inspire these young people and motivate them into achieving their dreams and goals.

This idea was brought to build the confidence of young minority ethnic children in the Sheffield area and to work with the young people. Instead of negative news around minority communities their self esteem and moral has been low with constant media comments relating to ethnic minority communities as underachieving, involved in gangs, shootings and terrorism and we need to bring some positive news about our diverse communities and inspire our young people not to give up but to listen to our role models and hopefully follow their dreams and aspirations.

High achievers, in their own field such as Johnny Nelson, former boxing champion, Patsy McKie Chairperson of Mothers against violence, whose son was murdered as a result of gun crime. Simon Hypolite, who is a reformed character and Harveer Dev who is a graduate studying at Cambridge University, were the guest speakers who came on the day to motivate and inspire the attendees.

Workshops were set up and the students were set various tasks to complete in order to be eligible for the award.

The tasks included in:

Category A - Full attendance at school, Punctuality, attend Physical Education classes, Regular library visits and assisting at home.

Category B - Achieve higher exam results than previous year, improve test results, to become class monitor or teachers assistant, regular contact with a pen friend from another country. Promote cultural festivals in school, do something useful during school holidays.

Category C - Become a volunteer outside school hours. Become a mentor to other pupils, tackle anti-social behaviour and bullying in school by making sure it’s reported. Become a prefect / head Boy / Girl. Take up some type of fitness or sport, raise money for a charity / School. Get a part time job in your spare time, help the community and any other interesting things you have done.

Chief Superintendent Jon House (District Commander of Sheffield) with winners:

Pouyan Maleki – Dizaji, Shu-wei Chang and Emily Ireland going to Bahrain

The top 3 students would win a trip to Bahrain, sight seeing and educational.

Runners up include a VIP day out with the Royal Air force, Army and Police and £500 worth of dance lessons with a local Dance Company.

11 months on the students who entered the competition and their parents were invited to the awards ceremony. This was not only an awards ceremony but for the district commanders, Chief superintendents Jon House and Steve Redhall and the South Yorkshire Police to meet their local Minority communities and build closer links with them.

This event was so successful and very well received within the local minority communities that it will be going ahead again this year, not just in Sheffield this time, but also in Doncaster. This gives us the opportunity to work closely and meet our diverse communities and involve young people in community initiatives. An excellent and rewarding event for all.

The lucky winners announced where three young students aged 14 and 15 years who won a trip to Bahrain. The top students also won a trophy for his school for encouraging the students to take part. The school award went to King Edward VII School in Sheffield.

In addition to the wining prizes Former Boxing Champion Johnny Nelson, who is also from Sheffield, attended the event and signed his latest book (Hard Road to Glory) for the winners. Johnny has been an inspiration to the students sharing his success story of how he followed his dreams and became a world champion. But shared his hard times with the audience.