Citizens in a Global World (age 11-16 years)

Introduction:

The Arab community of Israel faces many challenges due to the geo-political context of Israel, their position as an ethnic minority within Israel, and other socio-cultural factors that impact on their human development and quality of life.

This project is to provide Palestinian Children living in Israel with contacts to the outside world so that they can share experiences of their lives, aspirations, ambitions; develop ideas that can contribute to them being active social citizens and promote responsibilities of compassion, respect and tolerance as global citizens. The same opportunity will be provided for children from the UK to meet with them and share their thoughts, life experiences, ambitions and future goals. This social interaction between children will expose them to new methods of thinking and living.

This project will start by twinning two schools in Israel with two schools in the UK. In this project, we will focus on schools located in two Arab communities in the Israeli Triangle area (Kfar Qara (Northern region) and Tira City (Southern region (average 700-1000 students each)), and based on its success we may extend these projects to another parts of the country. Schools in the Israeli-Palestinian schools lack the resources to provide classes that concern developing mental wellbeing, critical thinking, a sense of belonging and community service. The benefits will include better self esteem, self respect and wellbeing, greater awareness about the other worlds outside their world, more exposure to drama, music, sport. For the UK children, they will be exposed first hand to Arab culture and learn about their ways of life. Children can develop a sense of giving to less fortunate children and develop a sense of acceptance to the other regardless of nationality, race, colour and religion.

Resources needed:

We need sponsorship to start this project. Israeli-Palestinian schools will need access to computers (internet access for chatting with children in the UK). English will be the language of communication between children, so there is a need for an intensive English language speaking skills class, to be provided after school. Sports facilities and equipments are required, a budget for travelling expenses to allow opportunities for children from both sides to meet and funding for evaluation. A team of teachers, children, parents, will be involved in putting a plan together to achieve these goals.

Professor Stephen Stansfeld, Professor Fuad Iraqi

Our priority is young people, referred to in the context of sports as the “Olympic Generation”

We aim to build on young people’s interests, instincts, spontaneity and wellbeing. We will seek to harness and nurture young people’s skills in humanities, arts, music, sports, health and citizenship.

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careif Global Olympic Generation Survey: Benefits of Sport on Health and Wellbeing

We are finding out what young people think about the benefits of sports on their health and wellbeing. We will know about their access, participation, disability, ambition and social contacts around the world this year and every year leading up to and after the 2012 London Olympics. This is a project developed by young people for young people contributing to the 2012 London Olympic Health Legacy.

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Research with East London Adolescence Community Health Survey

RELACHS is a unique school based epidemiological study of adolescents in East London that provides insights into many aspects of health and well-being of inner urban British adolescents, relevant to current national health policies and contributing to the 2012 London Olympic Health Legacy.

The young people (Year 7 and Year 9) who participate in RELACHS come from 3 boroughs of East London: Newham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney, all of which are very deprived by average UK standards. Around 73% of the young people in the cohort are from ethnic minorities, predominantly Bangladeshi, Black African, Black Caribbean, Indian or Pakistani.

RELACHS therefore provides a fascinating and unique picture of life and health for young people in London's multi-cultural inner city covering a spectrum of mental and physical health, life expectations, social and environmental issues; protective and risk factors for sexual behaviours and attitudes linked with teenage pregnancy.

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Olympic Generation

Young people are one of our priority areas of work, referred to in here as the 'Olympic Generation'. We are building on the theme of young people’s interests, intincts, spontaneity and wellbeing. We will seek to harness and nurture young people’s skills in humanities, arts, music, sports, health, education and citizenship.

There is empirical evidence from sports and academic organisations which demonstrates the important link between physical activity, mental health and wellbeing.

Careif is working in partnership with Visit London, the official organisation for London tourism. We are organising a series of events about physical and mental wellbeing. This will culminate in an international conference in 2012 shortly before the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We have also agreed to produce this final event in partnership with the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP).

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Careif’s Youth Map: Mapping of care services provided by children’s and Young Peoples’ charities in England

Sports and Arts have been shown to benefit the mental and physical health of children and young people. The charity sector often is a main provider of health promoting activities in response to local community needs. This study maps care services provided by children’s and young peoples’ charities in England

Arts activities were the most frequently provided services, followed by counselling and by sports activities. Only 13% of charities expected their work to contribute to the health legacy of the 2012 London Olympics. Telephone help-lines were provided by 16% of charities that promote mental health. Counselling and arts activities were relatively common, but sports  and activity were limited, despite the evidence base that sport and physical activity as an important intervention for maintaining good mental health and wellbeing

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