Purpose:

TSCP’s purpose is to lay a strong foundation to improve the quality of social and economic prospects, life, health and employment opportunities and education of Turkish speaking communities in the North East.

This project is designed to initially promote cooperation, collaboration and partnership to bring different groups together to support the whole Turkish Speaking and other minority Muslim communities in the North East of England and enable us to promote social justice and equal opportunity for all.

The social welfare, education and training, and creating employment and business opportunities for the Turkish speaking communities are the top of our agenda in this specific project. We will also help ensure that they receive accessible and culturally appropriate services to not only create a community that sets an example but to integrate and collaborate with each other and with other communities in the region for the benefit of all.

Background:

Over a twelve month period in 2009/’10 and working with different community groups, we identified that the Turkish speaking and Muslim communities are fragmented and divided based on their origin and beliefs as well as due to issues between local and wider leadership and their supporters. 

There is no unity or leadership to enable the whole community speak with one voice for the benefit of all.

It is our belief that the minority Turkish Speaking communities need to understand the change that is taking place in our communities and changes in government policies and, that they need to be empowered to take responsibility of planning for their future and helping local authorities prepare for their needs and requirements.

Objectives:

We wish to help the community develop in a skilled and strategic way that helps people to work together to achieve change. This will ensure that the community can contribute to the growth and maintenance of community cohesion by identifying what people have in common, what might help bind them together as well as acknowledging differences between them.

Some of our strategic aims are;

1. Assist particular client groups in removing labels that society has pinned on them from their past, and to take them in a new, focussed and exciting direction of where they want to be, label free, with a solid foundation and relevant skills to build a better life.

2. Help people build relationships across perceived boundaries and encourage integration on the basis of mutual respect and social justice.
 
3. Help to improve the capacity and capability of community to manage diversity and resolve conflicts by helping them achieve stronger community participation in their strategies, by tackling discrimination and divisions within and between communities, and by improving equality of opportunity and inclusion of disadvantaged groups.

4. Involve women and young people in the project and planning of the activities so as to increase their participation but, most importantly, to build their confidence in shaping their future. It was obvious from our preliminary meetings with the said groups that participation of young people and women were very limited, primarily due to cultural reasons and yet, we see their involvement as the key to their commitment to help achieve the desired outcomes of the project.

5. Work alongside other minority ethnic groups including refugees and asylum seekers by translating our i can programmes and providing the same service to them so as to help Government’s goal of encouraging more people, whose native language is not English, into mainstream communities and workforce, helping to boost community cohesion.

The project seeks to contribute to the strengthening of civil society in the North East by ensuring that Muslim Communities (primarily Turkish, Kurdish and other minority Muslim groups) become a strong and active partner in the dialogue for inter-community cooperation, collaboration and partnership.
 
We also wish to ensure stakeholder engagement as communication is crucial to sharing local best practice and establishing strategic actions that need to be taken.

COMMUNITY CENTRE

Among the many issues and needs expressed, our research established that there is a requirement for a catalyst project that will lay the foundations and lead to a Community Centre that will bring all support services that these communities are looking for under one roof to sustain, further improve and grow the services outlined in this project. The desire of the community members for this one-stop-shop Community Centre to provide is;

• Advice and Support Services for Education, Employment and Training (NEET)
• Advice and Support Services in areas such as health, housing, immigration, and Social Services
• Youth and Sport Services
• Turkish Women’s Group linked Services and Activities
• Parental and Family Support and Learning
• Elderly Projects
• Turkish Language Classes
• Social Club
• Innovative Commercial Initiatives, Services and Programmes to sustain the TCC
• Cultural Activities, Events, Seminars and Festivals
• Health and Fitness Education and Services (Healthy Eating, Stop Gambling etc.)
• Community Safety and Crime Reduction initiatives
• Translation and Interpreting Services
• Business Advice, Support and Training Services (including Business ‘Start Up’ Support, Seminars and Events)
• Legal, Tax and Accounting Services
• Other services as required by the Community

The Community Centre alone would generate employment for at least 7 people to start with and this would grow with the services to be provided.

We will support and/or run a number of cultural and social events and festivals in the North East to promote the community’s values, culture, arts, history, cuisine, holidays and way of life.

Progress towards the above results will be measured in most cases by comparing the initial situation for each indicator with progress achieved at the end of the project.

Petition

We ask for you, your friends, relatives and colleagues to complete the petition so that financial assistance is provided to;

  i) Help improve the quality of life for the Turkish Speaking Communities in Newcastle;

 ii) Secure the necessary leadership and expertise from I Can in the North East (CIC);

iii) Set up a Community Centre for the benefit of the Whole Community in the North East.

Please see the pdf below, print out, complete and post to 4 Strawberry Terrace, Hazlerigg, Newcastle upon Tyne. NE13 7AR