Working with young black people

This is an important collection, integrating research with messages for practitioners in an area where there has as yet been insufficient material published. This book also formed the focal point for a major international conference in the Summer of 2006. As well as jointly editing the publication, the author contributed a chapter to it. Bringing together this work's different dimensions and perspectives, this book seeks to challenge both the accepted status quo of Black young people s negative overrepresentation in most aspects of life - including education, criminal justice, housing and health - and their under-representation in empiric literature. It seeks to help find ways forward. Herman Ouseley, writing in this book, sets the tone. What is most heartwarming today, is how many Black young people survive and thrive, in spite of the struggles and obstacles... There are many people, working at a local level with young people from all backgrounds with a view to helping them realise their aspirations, hopes and dreams. Offering insights into issues that confront Black young people and presenting strategies for change the chapters in this book chart the shifts in British social policy - recruitment, restriction, repatriation, multiculturalism, and mainly now integration. It shows how, before meaningful work around integration and cohesion can begin, there must be greater understanding of the realities Black young people face, and of the various contexts for work with them.