The Manjit Wolstenholme Fund

Welcome to our second episode of our ‘GiveLoveBradford’ podcast.  In this episode we’ll be joined by Luke Wolstenholme, son of Manjit Wolstenholme.  Manjit Wolstenholme was born in India and went to school in Wolverhampton. Her life story was one of building the skills and perseverance to break down barriers to succeed in business. Manjit became the youngest woman to head an investment bank in London and went on to become the first woman from an ethnic minority background to chair and lead a FTSE 100 company – Provident Financial based in Bradford.

 
With support from Provident Financial Group, Manjit’s family established the Manjit Wolstenholme Fund which has distributed £79,634 to 9 groups. The fund was launched to honour Manjit with the aim of supporting children and young people in disadvantaged areas of Bradford to achieve their potential by providing educational and aspirational opportunities. Manjit’s own experiences meant she believed passionately that no-one should be denied the chance to achieve their true potential as a result of their background or where they live.


We were also joined Bradford Community Broadcasting and Keighley Association for Women's and Children's Centre, two organisations supported through the Fund who share the impact of the fund on the young people they support.

A full transcript of the podcast can be found here.


GiveBradford, is an organisation that supports thousands of charities and voluntary groups across Bradford, addressing inequalities.  We invest in these groups by distributing grants and sharing advice – acting as a catalyst for positive change. 

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Transcript

GiveLoveBradford Podcast Transcription

Episode 2 - The Manjit Wolstenholme Fund

Introduction

Hello and welcome to our GiveLoveBradford podcast. We'll be delving into conversations being held across the District and learning more about how we can come together to create positive change for the communities that need it the most.  GiveBradford supports 100s of charities and voluntary groups across Bradford addressing inequalities. We invest in these groups by distributing grants and sharing advice, acting as a catalyst for positive change. Today's host is Steph Taylor, Director of GiveBradford.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford 

Hello, my name is Steph Taylor from GiveBradford. Welcome to our second episode of the GiveLoveBradford podcast. In today's episode, we'll be joined by Mary Dowson from Bradford Community Broadcasting and Naz Kazmi from Keighley Association for Women and Children's Centre. But first we'll be talking to Luke Wolstenholme, son of Manjit Wolstenholme, who was a really significant person in our district. Her life story was one of building the skills and perseverance to break down barriers to succeed in business. Manjit Wolstenholme was born in India and went to school in Wolverhampton.  Manjit became the youngest woman to head an investment bank in London, and went on to become the first woman from an ethnic minority background to chair and lead a FTSE 100 company, Provident Financial Group based here in Bradford.  With support from Provident Financial Group, Manjit’s family established the Manjit Wolstenholme Fund, which so far has distributed nearly £80,000 pounds to 9 groups, and is a fantastic example of what philanthropy can achieve in the district. The fund was launched on a budget with the aim of supporting children and young people in disadvantaged areas of Bradford to achieve their potential by providing educational aspirational opportunities. manage its own experiences meant she believed passionately that no one should be denied the chance to achieve their true potential as a result of their backgrounds or where they live. We caught up with Sharon or community affairs manager, a provident Financial Group who shared why this fund is so important to them.

Sharon Orr, Community Affairs Manager, Provident Financial Group  

We wanted to work closely with Manjit’s family to make sure the fund reflected her remarkable inspiring journey and to support the projects we knew she would have been passionate about. And it's been brilliant working with Neil, Luke and Lily because they knew Manjit best of all, and it made absolute sense to work with the team at GiveBradford because they know which organisations are supporting our communities most effectively. And this expertise gives us peace of mind that the funding will make a difference. The grants panels have enabled us to involve Provident colleagues, many of whom live in the Bradford District and are often volunteers in our communities. So they also have a real sense of what's going on. And I think we're all really looking forward to learning more about the funds impact. And it's going to be great to hear today from some of the grant recipients. We know how tough the pandemic has been for our communities. So we've been happy to be able to play our part in supporting them alongside the Wolstenholme family.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford   

And here's Luke.  Hi Luke how you doing today?

Luke Wolstenholme    

I’m very good Steph, it is a real pleasure to be here doing this podcast with you. Thank you so much for inviting me on to do this.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford   

No, thank you.  You're going to be co-hosting with me today, but before we get grilling our two brilliant guests, can you tell us a little bit about why it's so important to you and your family to have a fund that promotes educational and aspirational opportunities in Bradford?

Luke Wolstenholme  

Yes, I mean, the fund idea was obviously born out of my mother's sudden passing a few years ago, which was, you know, obviously a tragedy for myself and my family. And you have to try and use that tragedy to make something positive, you know, you can either wallow, or as I say have a positive impact and the projects that we tried to fund, I suppose emulate in many ways, sort of the upbringing that my mother had, as a kid.  She was from Wolverhampton, andthere weren't many opportunities I suppose for herself when she was growing up. So, you know, a lot of the projects that we funded, I know we're going to be speaking to later on today, you know, aim to try and tackle that issue. And that's why it matters so much to us is in her name. And try to, yeah, have people dream big like she did when she was young. So yes, it's a beautiful thing to be a part of.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford  

Fantastic, thanks Luke, that's  really moving. And then as you say, we're going to meet some of the organisations that have got funding and through the Manjit Wolstenholme Fund, just tell us a little bit more, if you will, about the impact the funds had on your family being part of GiveBradford

Luke Wolstenholme   

Yeah, I mean, it's been quite emotional, I suppose to, you know, to be involved quite heavily with it. We have these excellent panels, once again, and just being able to be aware of the great work that's being done in Bradford is amazing, really, I think the sort of the grassroots charity where they really help people, they really change people's lives because they work in such small communities. It's so important and I think it is overlooked sometimes. You know, I feel like that's where real change happens. So yeah, it’s been emotional at times, as I say, to be a part of it, but it's meant so much to me and my family, I know, it's been part of the healing process on a personal level, just, you know, feel like you can help one person then that would be a success. Hopefully that that will happen. We just hope there is longevity, and I think we didn't want it to be a one-time thing, you know, a one off. And so it's been really nice this year to be able to continue that. And we want to be able to continue it for a long time, as I say, and help as many people as possible. Yeah.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford   

Yeah. And that will have huge value in the District. I can really empathise with what you're saying about the smaller grassroots groups and one of the things I love about GiveBradford is that we're able to fund and support those groups, and often those unsung heroes in communities that are that are really doing work that changes lives and wouldn't otherwise get profile or get funding for it, so should we meet a couple of those organisations now?

Luke Wolstenholme  

I think that sounds great.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford   

Fantastic, so first of all, we're going to speak to Mary Dowson, from Bradford Community Broadcasting. Bradford Community Broadcasting is a community organisation that uses engagement with community radio to bring about social change. BCB 106.6 FM is the community radio station for Bradford. Made by and for its diverse communities. And definitely worth a listen, if you don't already, to know what's going on across the district, it’s a great listen. There’s a small staff team there that provide training and support for over 200 volunteers, enabling them to gain the skills and confidence needed to become broadcasters and participants. Welcome, Mary, thank you so much for joining us.

Mary Dowson, Bradford Community Broadcasting  

No, it's lovely to be here with you.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford   

And I'll introduce you to Luke, who's my co-host for today.

Luke Wolstenholme   

Lovely to meet you, Mary.

Mary Dowson, Bradford Community Broadcasting    

Hi Luke.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford 

So do you want to kick off with your questions Luke? 

Luke Wolstenholme  

Yeah, that’d be great. I think first a bit, I'd love to know a little bit more about your projects, and the impact that sort of has on the community.

Mary Dowson, Bradford Community Broadcasting   

Yeah, I mean, particularly focusing on young people and the work we do with young people, we've always seen the importance of engaging young people in community radio, one of the things that we used to see ourselves as a community radio station, and we would describe ourselves in that way, but now we've actually, over the last few years, we've really realised that we're a community organisation that uses radio as a tool for that engagement and for social change. And in many ways, it could be something else that we could use, but we actually we choose to use radio as a way to, to engage people. And it's a great way to work with young people because it, you know, radio, the focus is something quite exciting and creative and interesting, and who doesn't want to be a DJ. So it's a really good way of engaging young people. But actually, through that engagement, then there's so much we can work with and support young people, especially those who are from more marginalised communities or disadvantaged communities. And so we do see that engagement in radio very much as a kind of hook to get people involved with the community organisation involved with other people. And, and yeah, and so that's kind of been, I say, how we how we use radio, and it's been a really successful way to engage with young people. And so we’re really pleased that we're able to carry on with that work with young people that we're already engaged with.

Luke Wolstenholme    

And yeah, I think, you know, the power of the media is so important. I myself, you know, am hopefully going into broadcast journalism, I think it's fantastic. You touched on creativity, especially I think it's, it's perfect for that. But do you think, Bradford Community Broadcasting's aim is to sort of inspire those marginalised voices which I know you touched on briefly as well, is that is that a real aim of the project?

Mary Dowson, Bradford Community Broadcasting  

Completely? I think for most of us, perhaps not so much in the last few years, it's changed a little bit, but most of us are passive consumers of media. It comes at us, and we listen to it and sometimes shout at the telly or the radio, but actually turning people into active broadcasters, and especially young people is absolutely vital and we all know about critical thinking these days. We know how important it is for young people to be able to discern between what's misinformation, disinformation, fake news, where information comes from, there's no better way of actually understanding how the media works than actually making a radio programme or producing one yourself. You understand about oh this is how it happens, this is how all this is how things could be edited, or this is who I chosen to bring into this to tell this story. So actually, that really powerful way of actually helping young people to understand media and you know, media literacy or critical thinking is really, really, really important. And I think it's never been more important than it is now. So we can do that through young people actually making their own programmes. And that's vital. The other thing is about aspirations, you know, for so many young people, it never, never considered that they could be the ones telling the stories, they could be the ones making those radio and television programmes. And so suddenly, actually thinking, I could do this, you no, I didn't know this job existed, people get paid for doing this, people do this for a living. So and there was one particular young woman who, who came to do some work experience, she's an absolute music, free love music, really, her mum's music more than her own, that she had inherited. But she loved music, massive passion for music. So she came on work experience, she carried on as many do with become on work experience, carrying on making radio with this and carried on doing a programme. She then decided she wanted to go into a radio, she's applied to university, do a radio production course and last year, she graduated and with a bit of encouragement from us, approached Radio 5, we had a good connection, 5 Live. Anyway, she's now got a full time job as a producer at 20, I think she's 22 now, as a radio producer at 5 Live, which is amazing. When I'm awake in the middle of the night, and I'm listening to radio Five Live and I hear Dotun Adebayo mention her name, I think, go girl. So you know, so that's just an example of how that engagement, that opportunity can actually really change the course of someone's life.

Luke Wolstenholme    

I mean, I think that's just so beautiful to hear, honestly and, you know, you can you can see me smiling, I know, people can only hear this through audio but I have a beaming smile, because it's so great to hear stories like that people having the opportunity and taking the opportunity, as well. And I guess, just on that point, you know, regarding again, you know, your project, what are the challenges, I suppose that the young people face when they're having these opportunities, you know, that again, focusing on those marginalised, maybe voices? It's very hard to get into the media s is your project aiming to be sort of the stepping stone to get people to go in? Would you say that that's part of what you do?

Mary Dowson, Bradford Community Broadcasting    

I think it's a small part of what we did. For most people, it won't be what they want to do, I think what we want to do is open up their horizons, and make, you know, make those dreams, you know, people's got a dream, how can we help them to achieve that, but for many young people, that it's, I think it's much more around confidence, building up that confidence, of being able to tell your story, but to articulate what you were able to put into words, what is your feeling, and your lived experience, and actually be listened to, I think we often talk about giving a voice and that, you know, I think actually it's about being listened to. So the fact that someone has their our own radio programme or the contributed to a radio programme, then it's actually legitimising what they've got to say, is actually saying, what you've got to say other people want to hear, you've got a right for your voice to be heard, and to express yourself in that way, and be listened to. So I think the aspiration of actually a media career is one which would always want to kind of open up and support young people to think about, but I think it's much much more about that self-esteem, valuing yourself, making the space for people to have a voice and be listened to, and being able to express yourself with a confidence and a belief in yourself, which we know that for lots of middle class kids, they get those opportunities. They get that they are listened to their people asking their opinions, you know, that for many, many young people that we work with, nobody ever asked their opinions. Nobody asked them to put into words, what they're feeling or what works, or to even the fact that they've got an opinion about something. So actually making that space for that to happen, I think it's absolutely vital. And especially for those same or more marginalised, the disadvantaged young people that we that we want to work with.

Luke Wolstenholme   

Yeah, I think that's so beautifully put again, Mary. I mean, the confidence thing is so key, I completely agree. I mean, I'm quite a young person, I'm 24 but I know when I was when I was younger, I struggled with confidence as well and I think public speaking especially is something that I'm sure you never really become fully confident with but it's something that you can build is such an important skill in life, you know, believing I have something important to say, and you should listen to this. Yeah and I think that that's such an underrated skill as well, having confidence in what you're doing. Yeah, I guess like, just, you know, the story you told before, of, you know, someone going to 5 Live as producer is so good, I was wondering if you would be able to sort of share any other stories from some of the young people involved with the projects and you know, sort of the support they've had through it?

Mary Dowson, Bradford Community Broadcasting  

Yes, thinking about sort of, particularly young people we work with, particularly with a school in Allerton and that's a school, which is really at the heart of it a disadvantaged community and it is so committed to not just the school being a school, but the school working with the community. And so we've been working with them, again, through lockdown, as well, because the schools, you know, had a lot of children still in schools and schools been open all the way through, as many have, and keeping these children have been doing producing, like regular reports, you know, Farm Academy, St. James and that's been absolutely lovely that they've been documenting, and producing those reports that we've been broadcasting on BCB. And again, it's that that thing about them being able to tell the story of what they're doing from that from their own perspective. So that's been really, really good. I think the other thing that's been really important over this sort of this period, this 12 month period that we've all been in, is how much young people, especially sort of people in early teens, you know, need somewhere to be, whether that's a virtual space, or a physical space, we've not been able to have those physical spaces very often but the virtual space where they can come together and just be somewhere with an adult in the room, you know, for an hour to a week has been really, really important. And it's just thinking about one young woman who does a programme, she's really into musicals, and she's looked after young woman, and she's really into music and so she's actually been able to produce radio programmes about musicals, but during February when it was LGBTQ History Month, and we did a lot of focus, broadcasting around that, she produced her half hour programme, not about musicals, but about sexuality, and gender and gender diversity and it was so powerful, that she had that confidence to produce this programme for other young people around a say, gender diversity. And again, I listened to it and I was just so proud of what she'd done and the fact that she'd come to that point of being able to do that, and that that was really, really special for me.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford   

That was really, really inspiring Mary, I was just thinking about the power of storytelling and how we use storytelling to communicate both our own personal journeys, but also what's needed across the district for people and communities and yeah, there's a lot in that, that it would be it would be really nice to think about how we share more broadly as well. At give Bradford obviously, we're kind of here to make sure that we broker investment into communities so you can do more of what it is you do really brilliantly with young people. What kind of investment would you want to see coming into communities to support particularly children and young people that are in areas of deprivation and perhaps are those marginalised have those marginalised voices?

Mary Dowson, Bradford Community Broadcasting   

The most important thing is ongoing, I think, short term funding is really hard, really, really hard to work with. And so as lovely as it is to get a year's funding, to be honest, it doesn't help us to be there for when young people need us. You know, when a young person stopped becoming a young person, when you do become a young adult, you know, I think some young people, they actually, they're with us for years and years through them, from early teens through to that transition from leaving school into the next bit of their life and when you've built up a safe, secure relationship, especially if you don't have lots of other ones, those relationships in your life, then having that organisation, those people, the place where you can be your whole self, you know, is so important. And so, I think what I would urge is sort of a longer term commitment to organisations and the trust that this organisation does good work, and they are embedded in the lives of young people or communities and a trust that actually, we don't want you to do you know, tell us what this amazing, you know, unique new project innovation you're going to do is that how can you stay there and be there for when young people need you? So I think my biggest sort of ask will be a longer term commitment to funding.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford  

Yeah, thank you and that's echoed by many of the community organisations that we speak to. It's definitely something that I think with good strong partnerships, and we can we can achieve through our grant making. I'm kind of struck by what you were saying about innovation as well, I think that traditionally, the foundation sector especially has been obsessed with innovation, and the idea that some something new and something shiny, and something that, you know, we can be a part of saying that we helped you achieve is, you know, the kind of often the way that philanthropy happens. And, you know, we've seen a lot of shifts through the pandemic, I think, actually, in some ways, there's been opportunities to demonstrate what happens in communities is solid and it works and you know, why reinvent the wheel, just fund what's there and what we know is working so very much behind john or Mary and trying to do what we can to support community organisations in that way. 

Mary Dowson, Bradford Community Broadcasting, thank you so much for joining us.

Mary Dowson, Bradford Community Broadcasting  

You're very welcome, it's been lovely to have the opportunity to reflect on what we do, and to be able to express some of the yeah, some of the achievements that we've been able to do with the funding that we've received and an opportunity to say thank you.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford 

Next we're going to speak to Naz Kazmi from Keighley Association for Women and Children's Centre, which is a small needs driven organisation advocating with and for vulnerable and disadvantaged women.  Founded in 1984, they work in Keighley, and operate from a women and girls centre off Lawcome Lane. Women come from the town's urban core, many are of South Asian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi background but this is now diversifying with the influx of Eastern Central European and African migrants as well. The organisation is run by women for women and like so many of our community organisations has a very active volunteer team. Hi, Naz it's really nice to see you, how you doing?

Naz Kazmi, Keighley Association of Women and Children’s Centre  

I'm fine. Thank you. Nice to be here today.

Luke Wolstenholme  

How you doing as it's an absolute pleasure to meet you.

Naz Kazmi, Keighley Association of Women and Children’s Centre  

Ah thank you.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford 

I know, Luke's got some questions for you now about the project that we funded through the Manjit Wolstenholme Fund.

Luke Wolstenholme  

Well to start with, I’d just love to know more about your projects and what you're trying to target most of all?

Naz Kazmi, Keighley Association of Women and Children’s Centre  

Right. First of all, the project was aimed at young BAME girls, Asian girls who didn't have any clarity about career progressions and who weren't given the right information or being able to get the right guidance and advice to be able to get into a career of their choice. You've got to remember that there's lots and lots of other problems within these young girls lives, growing up with a very traditional and cultural background. So I'm not going to put faith in there just yet, because it's more tradition and culture and, and thinking of their families. So the families weren't giving them the proper guidance, because of that stagnated views of giving independence to their young women to be able to be financially independent, because it's about control again, isn't it to give them that freedom of choice. And the other side did that the flip side was that because of the career support that young people are supposed to have in schools, and also have the proper guidance to understand the cultural aspects of a child's life because sometimes when you go into areas where you're given the guidance and the advice, but there's that the traditional and the cultural context, isn't there, because you have to be from that kind of a background to be able to understand what the stagnated views are of parents and families to allow their daughters to be able to progress into something. Now, you might ask me this question, Luke, is that what we'll do you live in Naz and I'm going to say, Well, I live in Keighley, but we really haven't moved on, as we should have done with the times. And you know, the advancement of our systems, advancement of our education and advanced, advancement of our thinking, really, and we need to be moving in that direction where there's still both stagnated views of families and other people around in the community.

Luke Wolstenholme  

Yeah, I think that's so admirable to be tackling and giving people sort of the belief to yeah, to progress to believe in in progressing forward.  But I know from obviously reading about your organisation, there's a particular focus on STEM and I was wondering if you could sort of illuminate why that's so important to get people into STEM subjects?

Naz Kazmi, Keighley Association of Women and Children’s Centre  

Right, the STEM focus was that we had some young girls approach us and this is through some consultation that we had the young people, and it was about what they saw STEM as just these guys walking around men, predominantly men wearing these high visible vests with their little caps on and just working on a building site. So that was the perspective they had, because it's a very stereotypical view of being in an engineering world, they didn't look deeper into what engineering consists of, you know, we had science, technology, maths, engineering, it was about taking those layers off those subjects, and to be able to have them something sort of more in depth knowledge, skills and experience of what does it need to get to a place but not I mean, high visible vests are fantastic, yeah but there is other elements to becoming, you know, an engineer. So it could be something to do with technical, you know, technical it could be, it could be all the other things, and also to be able to give them that environment as well to allow them to go into higher education places, like the universities, and they get to speak to the teachers directly, they get to speak to the champions of the universities who are doing the STEM subjects talking to role models, which this project allowed us to do, because they took them into some of the labs, the engineering labs in University of Bradford, this was before locked down, by the way. And then they did a lot of virtual tours as well, they, you know, they managed to talk to the teachers, some of the role models there, some of the young girls have graduated in engineering, so they, so this project allowed us to open that space for them, to allow them to be able to have those in depth conversations, to gain more knowledge. Because if you're not knowledgeable, you're not going to, you're not going to be able to decide if you're not given the right guidance and the right pathways to get to where you need to be. Um, can I just say out of this, we also opened doors to other career opportunities as well. So we looked into the police because there's under representation of BAME women in the police, there's also an under representation of girls, young girls, Asian girls going into engineering. And that was my focus was to open them doors, those career opportunities, apprenticeships, and to be able to allow them to have that those discussions with their families. Because if you look at look at it, you know, when a girl goes home and says, oh, Dad, I want to be an engineer, Dad has no knowledge. Mom has no knowledge, what an engineer, you know, what does it constitute to be an engineer? What do you need? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no be a teacher going to care work or be a teacher, because you know what, you're going to be home for your children, you're going to get married. So these are the views of the families and you know, yourself, Luke, how that has a massive impact on a young person's life. And that decision making process because right at the end of the tunnel, all they can see is a marriage for young girls. So these are the problems, the obstacles or challenges that, you know, we were able to talk to the parents, because we have that connection with the community, as I said that we bridge the gap, wherever it's possible and we were bridging that. So we were bringing the mothers along with us and this allowed us to talk to the parents as well as the young girls to be able to make those decisions. 

Luke Wolstenholme  

I think that's so beautifully put Naz honestly, and I think what you're saying, really struck a chord, I know, my mom used to tell me quite a lot about you know, when she was growing up, and obviously had those aspirations to go and do whatever she wanted. But sometimes, you know, family, or culture, you know, sort of dictate otherwise and they sort of make you feel like maybe you can't do what you want to do and they want to keep you in certain professions or at home or whatever it may be. I think it's so important to address that as an issue too because also you just want people to believe in themselves believe that they can do whatever they want to do, rather than being limited. And I guess just on that and what you've been saying It'd be great if you could share a couple of highlights from the projects if you had any off the top of your head.

Naz Kazmi, Keighley Association of Women and Children’s Centre  

Yeah, sure. One highlight was the young girls came forward, the ones who wanted to talk about it because they wanted to raise awareness for other people and other young girls to come forward which was absolutely an amazing piece of work from GiveBradford when they came in and interviewed them. But I think one case studies absolutely an amazing one. It’s one of our young girls, she goes through a very high profile school, but because of stagnated views of her parents, but when it came to the end, she became very, very frustrated because she wasn't getting the right guidance of where she needs to be because she wanted to do engineering, um, but from certain interventions from her family who said teaching is okay for you go for teaching, you know, do this. And she said no, but I want to, I want to I want to do engineering, I want to become an engineer. Anyway. So she went to different people, different organisations, which she never sort of managed to find what she wanted, or to be able to talk to anybody who could understand where she was coming from. So anyway, she ended up on our project, so we recruited her and then we helped her we gave her that bespoke one to one support, where we went through everything that she needed to do, then we brought the parents into it, we communicated with the parents, we communicated with her, we helped her with to build her CV, built her confidence, we did some confidence workshops with her, we did a very bespoke interventions to be able to get her to a place where she could think of what she really wanted to do. She came out with one A and two Bs and she was not satisfied. So she's, she's taken a year out, even after all this, and she's taken a year out. And you know what, she's now working part time for me to raise awareness about education, how important it is to talk to young people, she's led an environmental project, she's got so much things inside it have to be able to give to others. So she's now, we are now helping her she's gone back to school. So she wants to now get three A's, or an A star. She's an A star student can I say? But do you know what, stepping back and reflecting, has given her an opportunity and has given her that drive to go back and do it again. And, and how many people she's helped on the way absolutely amazing. And she goes and talks to the parents as well. So if parents are saying something, and she comes from a young person's perspective and say, well, you know, my mom and dad used to say that, but it's not like that, but this is where you need to be and this is how it is. So her perspective has changed, stereotypical views have changed. So even taking a gap year out, is not going to have a massive impact on her career. She she's allowed to step back and do something else and go back in again, but refreshed and reflected on her learning as well. So that will improve her as a human being, as well as herself and her own confidence.  Her confidence, she came in and he she was here, a confidence is up there. So can you imagine that, that huge break that she's had and what it's done to her is that it's given her that that platform where she can grow and become who she wants to. So she's going into engineering, by the way. So that is one massive case study that we've got. And she spoke to GiveBradford about it and she interviewed. She gave the interview and she spoke very sort of in depth of her journey to where she is today.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford 

Oh she did Naz and I know the young woman you mean and thank you for sharing that story, it’s really inspirational. And I can't think of a better kind of story to encourage people to give and support communities. And what you were saying there about, about her work really struck me in terms of how communities plays such an important role, don't they in in building people up and giving people role models and providing support in different ways that can supplement and complement what happens in family life. It's really, really important Naz,  I wondered if you just tell us a little bit about an investment. So obviously you've been funded through this programme, you do a huge amount of work with women and children and young people. What investment would you like to see coming into the district for that sort of work?

Naz Kazmi, Keighley Association of Women and Children’s Centre  

I think this type of investment for especially, grassroot organisations, it's welcomed so much, but you've got to understand that, as a grassroot organisation, we know the communities better. So we will look at their needs in the community. So, we are a needs driven organisation, I'm just going to sort of come back and reflect on my own organisation and the organisation that I work with is a needs addressed organisation, we are at the advocates for our community, for our women, our communities and our young people. Because, you know, if these investments are taken out, it will not give these young people opportunities to have that direct support. The support that they're not able to get in schools, they're not able to get anywhere else. But there are centres like this that they can come into and these centres, give them that space allows them to have that, that space to be able to talk to be able to gain and experience skills. And it's exactly back again to the young girl, if I was not in a position to open my door to this young person to give her that support, to be able to help her develop her confidence, develop her skills, knowledge experience, I am coming in as a volunteer and then becoming a paid worker, that is a massive step for a young personA lot of work needs to be done, again, with the BAME community, because there's lots and lots of barriers, again, emphasis on social mobility, under representation in employment, under representation on strategic boards, having a voice, you know, these are sort of very challenging areas that there needs to be a lot of investment for young people. And then the next part is now mental health, it's a priority, because you've got to remember that these young people have been in an environment, a home environment. So they really had just virtual connection with people, but nothing physical. Because as we are human beings, we need physical connections, we need to be able to touch we need to be able to speak, we need to be able to offload, we need a person, not a computer to sit in front and on top, because we can't see their emotions, we can't, we can't share the feelings. And now hope everything goes okay and the slow lifting of lockdown will allow these young people to come back. But you've got to also remember that some of these people have been in there where the parents have lost their jobs, there is no financial sustainability, they've gone on to Universal Credit, you know, that's had a massive impact, you know, being not able to buy things for the children, parents having their own issues, and you've got children having their own issues. So there's a lot of work that still needs to be done. And people like yourself, Luke, and you know, organisations like yourself, GiveBradford need to invest in these areas. And can I just say that I'm not, I'm going on a lot about the BAME community, but we are side-lined a lot of times, and we have got glass ceilings for careers, we've got unconscious biases going on, we've got racism, we don't have the, you know, discriminated maybe for wearing a scarf or something like that, you know, there's very sort of institutional racism that, you know, certain areas and certain jobs are difficult to get into. So we need to be able to work with the employers, as well as the community as well. And this bridging needs to be done. And I've been in the community for the last 35 years, we've improved, but not enough. Yeah. And that that bridging as you describe it now, is that needs funding is that bridge, it could be a big bridge, it could be a small piece, but that is the funding that will bring that joint everything together. 

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford 

Absolutely and I think what you were saying about mental health is really, really important. And we need to make sure that funding is given in a way that recognises almost all the work organisations like you do supports people’s mental health, employment projects, support people's mental health, you know, projects that are about keeping people safe, support their mental health, it's all connected. And I think too often funding looks at one specific issue and doesn't look at people, as we all are, whole people that you know, might need help with different things at different times. So I'm really, really conscious of that and I was hoping that we can, we can support around making the case for funding to be more like that and more reflective of what you need. Naz, just before you go, you've been doing some fantastic work outside of the Manjit Wolstenholme Fund work as well. I know support in a set of GPS to set up the UK is first women's only vaccine clinic and I can't let you go without asking about that because that’s really exciting.

Naz Kazmi, Keighley Association of Women and Children’s Centre  

Yeah and it just sort of came about again, you know, we're a grassroots organisation, needs driven, it was a need, and it needed to be addressed and again, we come back to we fill the gap. So it was about bridging the gap and also work for me, it's not a lot of marginalised, disadvantaged women, also the cultural and tradition and the fear mongering that's been going on, prevents people from coming forward. So we are a trusted organisation. So if I'm, I mean, I'm sure you've seen me get my vaccine done in front of people. So that was to raise awareness of how important it is to be vaccinated if somebody trust me and trust the organisation and please come and get yourself vaccinated because, again, these are women who are carers who are have got underlying health issues that because of what happened with the social media and, and it was that that fear that was put into people that thought they're going to be injecting you with these and this and this. So it was these mixed messages that people were getting, and very negative messages were preventing people from coming forward. And also this clinic that we set up was allowing women to have their privacy as well. So if they needed to talk about anything, if there was an issues and a crisis, or if there was any interventions that we were able to help them with, we were open for a conversation. 

Steph Taylor, GiveBradford

Brilliant, thank you.  Just another example of how Bradford District has been on the map around COVID-19 response over the last year.  Thank you for sharing that Naz, really inspiring. Naz Kazmi from Keighley Association for Women’s and Children’s Centre thank you for joining us.

Naz Kazmi, KAWACC

Thank you.  Can I just say my last words to Luke, there is a beautiful saying, Sadqah-e-Jaariyah, meaning that after a person has left the world and they leave something behind, a legacy.  And can I say thank you very much and god bless your mother’s soul and bless all you guys for doing such a wonderful job and you know what, it is very heart warming and I don’t have the words to thank you enough and your family.

Luke Wolstenholme

Honestly, thank you for doing the work that you’re doing, I’m just glad we can facilitate it in some way because you are doing brilliant things and it’s been so great to hear it. It’s been really moving.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford     

Wow, what fantastic inspirational people.  I know that’s the first time you’ve had chance to really learn about those projects in action Luke.  What do you think?

Luke Wolstenholme       

Yeah Steph, I mean it was genuinely just so moving to hear the amazing work that they are doing.  I just genuinely sitting and listening and it’s amazing and it’s overlooked sometimes, the amazing work that a lot of these grassroots projects do.  I think there’s one thing reading and researching these projects when you’re thinking of funding them.  I nearly had a tear up at the second interview we just did and genuinely just both incredible people and I’m just so glad that I got to converse with them and I hope I get to meet them in person in more normal times, it would be amazing to do that.  I know that something we touched upon earlier and I know we touched upon with the funding aspect and the longevity of the fund, we want to keep doing this for as long as I’m here, and that’s what we want to do.  I think we just want to facilitate these grassroots projects, that’s where the work is done and that’s where real change happens and there are so many huge charities and conglomerates, which is great to give money to but sometimes I worry if real change happens or if it’s too slow.  We want to find these amazing projects dotted around and help people facilitating these grassroots charities and grassroots projects.  I hope we can do that for a long time moving forward, yeah.

Steph Taylor, Director, GiveBradford     

Great, we hope so too and it’s been brilliant to facilitate that connection between you and your family and the projects and that’s what we’re here to do at GiveBradford.  Lots of those organisations would find it very difficult to access funding without us in the middle so thank you and thank you for having the faith and trust Luke to partner with us on that.

That’s it for our second episode, thanks for listening and special thanks to Luke, Mary and Naz for joining us today.  We hope this episode has inspired you to get in touch, find out more about our work in Bradford and how you can make an impact in the communities that need it the most.  

Outro                    

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