Enjoy some Award winning inspiration!

Tuesday 13th July 2010

Shaun Harper won our PeerLink Award for conflict resolution in Scotland. He tells us about the great work he does in his community and how young people are best at solving each others problems:

“I work in my community to help give young people stuff to do apart from gang fighting and getting into trouble with the police. I have also been involved in F.A.R.E`s (Family Action Rogerfield and Easterhouse) 15 week ‘mer tae me’ program which aims to divert young people away from gang fighting, anti-social behaviour, or misusing drugs and alcohol. We show them the consequences of these things using DVDs and different types of workshops to discuss issues the young people face.

I also support full time staff in our Territorial History programme to show primary 7 pupils the consequences of becoming involved in gang fighting or anti-social behaviour. The aim of the project is to show pupils real life experiences of young people who have been involved in gang fighting and the consequences they are now facing for their actions.

“I think it is a good idea to have young people like me doing this kind of work because I was once involved with gangs where I was causing distress to the local community as well as my own family. I now want to put back into the community what I have taken out of it by showing young people that there is other stuff to do rather than gang fight and causing trouble.”

It’s good that young people do this work because young people find it easier to tell other young people their troubles and problems rather than talk to the police or teachers. They can relate better with other young people.

I felt great winning the peerlink award for conflict resolution in Scotland because I had been recognised for all the hard work I have done in my community and across the East End of Glasgow. It’s important for young people to be recognised for this kind of work because it takes a lot of time and effort to get the message across to the young people we work with that there is more to life than gangs and anti-social behaviour. Being recognised encourages us to keep going with helping to make positive changes to other young people.

The best part of the ceremony was stepping onto the stage and listening to Jane Corbin read out my story of my life experiences and how I’m making positive changes to my own and other people’s lives. Being presented with my award made me feel really proud of what I have achieved. I have a passion to keep going in helping a lot more people throughout the East End of Glasgow.”

Shaun