British Somali Community Centre
Striving to inspire young people and families towards better life chances
News & Events
News & Events
The British Somali community
is constantly growing, reading about our news and upcoming events gives everyone a little taste on what we are about. Here you can be informed about the latest exciting events, sign up to some of our most informative and beneficial courses or attend our action packed workshops.
BSC is proud of their members and to celebrate them, the achievements of members of the community will be posted right here.
BSC Offers Condolences
The British Somali Community Centre offers its condolences to All those effected by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all Families who have lost loved ones in our Community and around the world.
December 2019 SUPPLEMENTARY SCHOOL END OF TERM BOWLING TRIP
To mark the start of the holiday and to reward our students for their hard work this term the BSC Supplementary School organised a trip to Rowans tenpin bowling located at Finsbury park. The trip took place on Saturday the 21st of December a day after the schools broke for Christmas break. The students enjoyed a much deserved time bowling as they have worked hard this past term.
Child Exploitation & The Dangers Of Porn (20.11.19):
The aim of this project was to use expression as a means to explore and challenge the issues around Violence Against Women and Girls in the community. The talk was titled 'Child Exploitation and the dangers of porn'.
Strengthening School, Parent and Community links (27/11/19):
The aim of this event was to purely help connect the bridge between school, community and schools. The objective is to help parents who struggle with language barriers, communications skills and other barriers to feel that they have a chance at being heard. In order to allow parents to gain a level of confidence we also set up workshops and question and answers so that their personal concerns are listened to.
Child Exploitation & The Dangers Of Porn (20.11.19)
Hiri provided a 15 min talk on how parents can identify whether their child is being exploited or manipulated. She then asked the audience "Five Key Questions" to think about when talking to your child.
1. Are they receiving/giving expensive gifts?
2. Do they have older friends?
3. Are they detached from friends and family?
4.Is someone asking for photos?
5.Are they buying drugs, cigarettes or alcohol to be purchased for someone else?
The main message Hiri wanted to end with is that a lot of the times children and teens are exploited, it is by someone they know. She emphasised that even if as a parent you have a gut instinct that something is not right. Talk to the school. Even if you might be wrong. Talk to your Childs school. This is their responsibility too.
Leticea from Camden Safer followed after and gave a 15 minute talk on how parents can identify whether there child is at risk of exploitation or even in fact if they are exploiting someone.
Her presentation thoroughly examined different ways of knowing your child is at risk.
At Safer London women like Leticea are willing to give free practical advice on how to communicate effectively with your young women or teen. Safer London also offers a mentoring programme and helps support anyone who is at risk of child exploitation. The main note that she also ended with is that anyone can be a victim of exploitation
Lastly we had Mary Otuko from Forward; the NGO which helps support women and Children who are at risk of violence including Domestic Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Threat of FGM.
Mary explained that at FORWARD they run young women leadership programs.
By helping women become leaders, FORWARD is actively teaching women how to break the cycle.
2019 Events
2019 Events
2nd MAY 2019
BSC and Afro-Congolese community event Against knife crime – The British Somali Community along with the British Congolese community teamed up to tackle issues regarding youth violence and knife crime. They collaborated they identified that many boys that were involved and were victims of these crimes were of African decent. We discussed the solutions that could be implemented that may decrease such instances within the community related to youth crime and underachieving.
22nd July 2019
Youth Safety Launch Day: The youth safety project is a new scheme funded by Camden. The project aims to help families with the attendance of parents who have been directly impacted by the rise in violence. Professionals were invited that specialise in youth safety/crime as well as youth leaders and anti-knife crime activists.
24th July 2019
BSC Volunteer group meeting: Focus group on project efficiency.
BSC assigned 7 volunteers who we Identified as willing to help tackle violence amongst youth in the community. The BSC Decided to create a focus group which provided the volunteers of the youth safety project with the necessary guidelines and information.
7th August 2019
Meeting for the killing of two Somali boys
Community leaders along with representatives for the council and metropolitan police came together following the stabbings and murders of multiple young males in the community. The statistics showed that 6 Somali boys have died as a result of knife crime.
10th August 2019
Youth safety working group
The Crowndale centre hosted a meeting with organisations including Corams fields, SYDRC, LEAP and WIMCH. Bespoke educational programmes we focused on to raise awareness for all parts of the community.
17th September
Group Meeting With Mayor Keir Starmer
Marking one year since the Youth Safety Task-force Report was published Residents, community leaders and young people expressed their determination to work together, ensuring there are measures put in place to make young people safer and prevent more casualties amongst the youth in Camden.
October 29th 2019
Group seminar: How Would You Get Involved in your child's achievement in school
The BSC and the SYDRC are working together on ways to keep parents informed and help identify the ways in which their children may be a risk.
20th November 2019
Child Exploitation (Seminar/ Workshop)
The BSC held a seminar on Child exploitation and the Dangers of Porn. Attended by experts members of the community and parents, dedicated in ensuring the safety children online. The speakers went through the signs that parents should look out for as well as changes in their child's behaviour in order for exploitation to be prevented. The 4 types along with the stages of grooming were explained in detail to help parents notice warning signs early on.
27th November 2019
Strengthening school links with the community
This programme was organised to promote good parenting and to build healthy relationships between parents and students. It brought together Parents and representatives from schools in Camden in order to discuss how they can communicate efficiently between each other. The successful event focused on breaking barriers of communication with schools was essential so that parents have transparency with their child's educators.
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