COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (153) issued by The Government News Network
on 9 August 2007
A new generation
of role models from within local communities is needed in order to
tackle underachievement among Black boys and young men and counter
a culture of low aspiration, a major report said today. Too often
the role models for young Black men are celebrities and rappers -
who can glamorise crime, guns or gangs.
The independent REACH report published today has been written by
20 leading experts across the fields of education, youth justice,
the voluntary and community sector, law enforcement and business.
The report says that a lack of positive role models is having a
detrimental effect on the aspirations on young Black men and says
a national role modelling programme is needed to raise
expectations and counter negative portrayals of Black men.
New figures published in the report set-out the stark future
economic costs of failure to promote equality of opportunity for
Black boys. It makes clear that tackling underachievement among
Black boys and young men could benefit the economy by £24 billion
over the next 50 years.
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears will receive the report on
behalf of Government at the launch in Manchester.
The REACH group were asked to look at how communities, local
agencies, parents individuals, local and central Government can
work together to raise aspirations, create more opportunities and
improve life chances of young black men.
The report makes clear that tackling issues around
underachievement is a shared responsibility. The Black community,
community leaders and voluntary organisations, local and central
government all have an important role to play if progress is going
to be made.
The report puts forward five recommendations:
The Government should introduce a structured national role model
programme for Black boys and young Black men.
Chair of REACH Clive Lewis, who is founder of a major charity for
Black men, believes that a new generation of role models from
within local communities are needed - lawyers, doctors, teachers,
charity leaders, successful local politicians and others. He
thinks that too often the role models for young black men are
celebrities and rappers - who can glamorise crime, guns or gangs.
The report calls for a new national structured programme
identifying and promoting local role models who challenge these
images in communities, promoting positive citizenship and
alternative role models. The report also looks at the positive
impact that mentoring schemes can have both on young people and in
supporting parents.
Clive Lewis said:
'We need to create a new culture where young Black men look
up less to rappers and more to successful young Black role models
in their communities like doctors, lawyers, community leaders and others.'
The Government should construct a national framework for
family-school partnerships, ensuring that the needs of Black
families are integral to the framework.
The report calls for a stronger relationship and engagement
between parents of Black boys and teachers and schools to promote
greater educational aspiration. These partnerships could provide
support and encouragement so more Black parents become school
governors, offer more advice and guidance on promoting education
at home and support parents in raising concerns or suggestions on
improving local schools.
Voluntary and Community Sector organisations working to support
Black boys and young Black men should form Black-led Consortia,
supported by the Government.
Many of the organisations at the forefront of tackling
underachievement amongst Black young men and boys are small in
scale and face significant barriers. Many do not have the
experience, time or expertise to apply for Government funding,
local authority grants or voluntary sector resorces. One of the
most successul ways of overcoming these barriers is for them to
form an umbrella organisation to make their voice heard, share
expertise and resources. This ensures a more coordinated and
strengthened focus on tackling issues of concern.
Ofsted, Department for Children, Schools and Families and
relevant field forces should take urgent steps to strengthen
existing systems to ensure that:
(a) Ofsted effectively and consistently report on schools'
delivery of their race equality duties, and;
(b) Relevant bodies challenge and support schools in their
delivery of those duties.
All ethnic groups achieve better GCSE results than a decade ago
with progress in tackling the gap between Black and white pupils -
however Black boys still lag behind overall. Whilst there is
evidence of good practice and excellent teaching, this is not
consistent in every school and the report calls for change.
Communities and Local Government should appoint a task force that
will drive forward the delivery of the REACH recommendations,
within the wider achievement agenda for Black boys and young Black
men, reporting to a Minister for Race.
Chair of REACH Clive Lewis added:
"Despite many encouraging trends, Black communities are
still being drawn into a web of disadvantage and suffer poorer
outcomes in education, health, employment, housing and the
criminal justice system.
"We need to focus our collective effort on raising the
aspirations and achievement of Black boys and young men to enable
them to be more connected and engaged with wider society and more
able to make an even greater contribution economically, culturally
and politically to Britain."
"Often the only well-known images of Black men are those of
sportsmen and rap artists. But Black boys and young men
desperately need a greater diversity of images and portrayals,
showing that Black men can be, and are, successful as in a wide
range of careers including business, teaching, the law and health care.
"There is an economic and social imperative to raising
aspirations of Black young boys and men. In turn this will help to
create a more skilled workforce, reduce crime and the fear of
crime, decrease the pressure on the criminal justice system and
provide a boost to the British economy."
Notes to Editors
1. REACH is an independent body commissioned by Government and
chaired by Clive Lewis, Director of The Men's Room, a charity
working with Black young men.
2. The REACH group was set-up by Government in 2006 and has 22
members drawn from a variety of sectors, including the voluntary
and community sector, education, academia and law enforcement.
3. Today's news release is issued by REACH via the
Department for Communities and Local Government media network.
4. The £24 billion referred to above is from research by
PricewaterhouseCoopers and includes the costs of the impact of
lower educational achievement on labour market outcomes; schools
exclusions and involvement in the criminal justice system. This
research was commissioned by Communities and Local Government and
is based on 2006 data.
5. The REACH report can be found at http://www.communities.gov.uk/reach
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