Question Time -post event review.

The project was a success; due not to the colossal crowds

that were bursting to have a say on the stage with the trembling

sweat soaked microphone that was awaiting lip murmuring intimacies;
but more so to the fact that the men who had attended were of a broad age
range (Young and old) and spoke of the real issues that
were facing local communities; the undercurrent of so
called modernity and a crippling infrastructure that is
falling from beneath us.

So what were the burning issues with regards to ‘Black
men’ accessing services on offer within the community?
What were the concerns of the ‘male’ African
Communityregarding community provision and
promoting a sense of emotional well-being?

For the older generation access to NHS dental healthcare
was a primary concern; but this was coupled with a general
nihilism of cultural services on offer. It was felt from the
older generation (40 +) that there were no creative spaces
available for social histories of the local African Community
to be shared with the younger generation.

It was evidently expressed through bails of laughter, amongst
feasting on the delightful Caribbean dish that had been prepared by the
ever so charming project manager. And there was a poignant sense

of the vitality and importance of the commune happening

before our eyes which gave resonance to the voice of the younger

generation who appealed to the group parties and professional agencies
that there was nothing on offer within the community for
young people. Youth centres and projects were out of
touch if not completely off the radar with what was being
offered. The young had nowhere to turn to apart from
the streets, where contemplation would so often turn
to confusion.

A desperate plea was in the air of the small hum drum
room of the centre, that had suddenly become
transformed and had permeated time, like a time
machine voyaging across Harlem nights, over the seas
of immigration, over the hardships and the struggles of
African predecessors; from the youthful, creative and
graceful young men who had proudly bothered to turn
up because they cared; ‘how do we connect?’, ‘What do
we connect to?’, were the issues of the day that
resonated the undercurrent that communities were
breaking without much recognition.

Was there any mental health prevention strategy for Afro- Caribbean men?

What about the 'Breaking the Cirlces of fear' initiative and guidelines?

Had Mental Health and younger BME people been forgotten locally?

The community felt concerned and very sidelined!

And thus a new solution was required. Where local
services needed to acknowledge the importance of
sustaining old and new communities and building the
bridges between them to safe guard the past and future.

Since the event it has fruited by my communication with
some of the attendees of the event and the project manager
that a creative group for men is vital; that it could withhold
and nurture the need for a sense of community and place
for the young and the old. A project will soon be proposed
and is in the pipeline involving key members of the African
Caribbean community. More information will be provided
when the blueprints have been set!