Oral history interview with Ali Abdi about his involvement with the Cardiff University Community Gateway Program, 30 January 2017

Description

Interview with Ali Abdi about his involvement with the Cardiff University Community Gateway Program, as well as his links with the local Grangetown community. Interview recorded on 30 January 2017 at the Grange Gardens Bowls Pavilion.

The Cardiff Community Gateway Program is a program that encourages partnerships between Cardiff University and various businesses and organisations in Grangetown and other areas in the local community in order to achieve common goals. More information about the program can be found at their website:
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/community-gateway

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The Chronicle Project is a community heritage project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and run by VCS Cymru with the aims to document the history of volunteering in Cardiff, from 1914 to 2014.

Visit our website at: http://chronicle.vcscymru.org.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chronicleVCS/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vcs_chronicle

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We will now begin recording the interview with Ali Abdi. The recording takes place on the 30th January 2017 at Grange Gardens Pavilion. The volunteers present are Elizabeth and Kayleigh Williams. And this recording is being collected as an oral history and will be part of the chronicle project. A project led by VCS Cymru and funded by the heritage lottery fund.

KW = Kayleigh Williams (Interviewer), LW = Liz Williams, AA = Ali Abdi.

KW: Ali would you mind introducing yourself please.
AA: Yeah my name’s Ali Abdi. I live in Grangetown and I’m working on a Cardiff university community gateway project.
KW: Okay, and would you mind explaining what the gateway project is, and how it all began please?
[Cardiff University's gateway project, the bowls pavilion - 0:45 to 1:43]

AA: Yeah the gateway project is one of five Cardiff University flagship projects. Ultimately it is all about making Grangetown an even better place, utilising the university’s world class research, student volunteering, and on to bridge that gap and make use of the resources available. We’re here today in a Grange Pavilion. This is an old run down bowls pavilion. So one of our projects, access projects, is rejuvenating this space, making it more accessible. For a long time when it was in the hands of the bowls community, it was exclusive – just for people who play bowls. Now with the university’s involvement we’ve been able to open up this space. We’ve got lots of activities taking place. We have events booked and activities throughout the year. And yeah, I think, you know, it’s fantastic, we’re always looking for more and more people to get involved.
KW: Wonderful. And so what sort of activities and events are you holding here then?
[Facilities and partnership management role, youth work - 1:49 to 2:43]

AA: Yeah, so I’m responsible, so I’m the facilities and partnerships manager. So I really signpost and also promote a lot of the projects and activities – try and get lots more people involved. I’ve took a particular interest in anything to do with young people because, you know, I think it’s important to evolve young people in the future of any development or projects and activities taking place.
So we’ve established a Grangetown Pavilion youth forum, where young people tell us what they would like to see happen – takes place in Grangetown Pavilion. And as well as alter that we have started to run some activities geared towards them, we’ve got like a youth club. That runs from here twice a week. We got a really good coaching and cricket activities taking place here. Host some other sports like football, along with mentoring that take place collectively – so football and mentoring together.

[Activites at the bowls pavilion - 2:44 to 3:52]

So yeah, I think, you know, it’s a beginning of a long journey but lots of activities taking place. We got a community garden, also running every Sunday – so if you’re interested in getting involved in raised beds and growing you can get involved in our community garden. We have an ESOL class running three days a week to serve the local community and members of the community who don’t, who’s English is there second language. We have the fan group based here, every Monday. The friends and neighbours group, and they’re fantastic, they bring people together from a host of different backgrounds to have a conversation. We have mental health groups accessing this space. Homework club accessing this space. We’re going soon to have a café as well, also running from this space.

So yeah, I think, you know, we still got space in our weekly booking log so yeah if there’s something you wanna get involved in, you know, the themes are behind me there. The nine themes, the ones that we’re taking, you know if something falls inside of we’ll, if you want to lead on something we’ll also find a university lead to also collaborate on that to make it a success.
KW: Oh wow, it sounds like you guys do so much here. If we just go back to the youth forum, you said you were involved with yourself, what benefits has that brought to this community since you started on that?

[Youth forum - 4:07 to 5:01]
AA: Yeah I think the youth forum has been fantastic because in a previous career, or previous job role, I did a lot of youth work, I worked for the youth service in Cardiff council, for like fifteen years, and prior to that I volunteered and that helped me in terms of getting onto the employment ladder. So I really see the benefits of volunteering. So in terms of engaging with young people, they often haven’t got much to put on their CV as such a young age, so if they get involved with activities here at the Grangetown pavilion, we can update their CVs and show that they’re involved in teamworking, organisational skills, improving their confidence, speaking skills. So I think there’s a host of skills they can learn and they can also demonstrate on their CVs so in the future when they go looking for their job, it really reflects well that they have contributed to their local community.
KW: Oh Wow, and so do you work with a lot of volunteers then? Or…
[Recruiting volunteers - 5:07 to 5:46]

AA: Yeah, Yeah. We’ve got an open call on our website right now with the community gateway website to encourage people from Grangetown and the wider community to get involved with any of our projects that we have taking place and that’s gone down really well. I think for every project that we’re running we have lots of volunteers – those from the, from the student community at Cardiff University but also from the Grangetown community here. And it’s fantastic to see those two working together because often you don’t see that taking place in other activities across the, across Cardiff. So you’ve got student community and local community coming together to make Grangetown and even better place.
KW: Wow, it, it sound very interesting. Have you found that, you know, having so many different people involved with each other in the volunteering has benefitted certain areas like the youth forum or the counselling or any of the other bits?
[Crosstalk]

[Misconceptions concerning Grangetown - 6:04 to 6:42]
AA: Yeah, I think bringing people together from different walks of life, to engage with each other, to work together, on a common theme, on a common goal, has definitely benefitted both groups. I think sometimes there’s a misconception about Grangetown. And I think, you know, by getting people who have that misconception, meeting with people who live in Grangetown, work in Grangetown, really active in Grangetown, it really does bring home that actually that misconception they had was just literally a misconception and actually there is a lot more to offer in Grangetown. And they’re able to go back into their communities, wherever they are from, and sing our, sing the praises of that local community, and say actually you know what Grangetown isn’t as bad as you think it is.
KW: Okay, I’m going to go back to something else you said. You mentioned that you have been a volunteer yourself.
AA: Yep.
KW: So would you mind explaining what sort of volunteering you’ve been involved in please?
[Volunteering as a teenager, career development - 6:54 to 7:56]

AA: Yeah. I think it started back when I was probably in high school. I always used to want to get involved in activities, whether that was outside of school, at my local youth club, or even inside of school when there were things going on – I would like yeah, you know what I’d be interested in doing that. And, you know, it just always made me feel good that I was able to contribute and help out. Particularly I enjoyed a lot more when I was outside of school. The youth club weren’t too far away from my house, so the manager back then used to give me responsibilities sometimes, and, you know, to run sessions, to be in charge of some provisions, and eventually they saw a lot of potential in me, put me on like youth work courses to build my confidence and also give me the skills to deliver the work I was delivering voluntarily in a better way. Yeah and it equipped me with those skills to be able to continue to give back to my community. And, yeah, I continued to do that ever since.
[Short break in interview]

KW: So Ali, you mentioned that you were involved in volunteering when you were younger…
AA: Yep.
KW: What roles specifically were you involved with and how did that come about?
[Mentoring at school - 8:09 to 8:46]

AA: Yeah I think, when I was younger, I think I must have been about towards the latter end of high school, I used to always help out, get asked to support younger pupils in the school, like a little mentor, role model. You know at that age you feel really good as like your one of the older boys in the school, you’re helping the younger children grow up. Especially because the school I went to, many of the kids that went to that school were from my community as well. So they we’re from Grangetown and Butetown – so inevitably you were helping people who were just like yourself and there’s nothing better than helping people from your own community.

[Volunteering at Grangetown boys and girls club - 8:47 to 10:23]

And yeah, I think, you know, when I was, and outside of school I used to attend a local youth club – Grangetown boys and girls club. That was located in Earl Street Lane - not far from Chanel View in the Marl. I used to go there two/three nights a week, from like 6:30 until 9:00, you know, they had Playstation, they had pool, table tennis, played football and yeah I think again they used to have a night where more juniors used to come more than seniors. And I was senior at that time being sixteen and over and yeah, I think I was given lots of responsibility to look after lots of the younger children again they lived in and around my community some were my neighbour’s children, my friend’s like siblings and stuff. So I had a really good time, you know, putting activities on for them, whether it was football or [inaudible] table tennis. A lot of the time it was just keeping them in check really and just making sure that, you know, they learnt to share play and get on together really, and create that friendship environment that. I think you know as I got older and the more hours I committed they rewarded me with their commitment by putting me on courses and wanting to develop and train me to be a youth worker, to be qualified and have the skills to be able to effectively run sessions. So I think maybe a year after I done lots of volunteering I was employed and actively working and getting paid employment within youth and community work.
KW: Oh wow, so would you say then that the volunteering you did has sort of helped you get to where you are today then in your job?
AA: Oh totally! Had I not volunteered and got involved in volunteering in my local community I probably would have took a different path – where that would be I don’t know. But I don’t think I’d be here today if I wasn’t volunteering when I was sixteen.
KW: Wow, and when you were volunteering at sixteen, and around that age, did you meet anyone that greatly impacted your life or sort of encouraged you to get involved?
[Inspirational people - 10:59 to 12:08]

AA: Yeah. My youth worker back then was Steve Khaireh, who’s got an MBE right now he actually doesn’t live too far away from here either. And I think, you know, I just used to see the dedication he used to put into his work, you know, towards us. So I’m growing up now, I’m going to the youth club that’s my, you know, youth worker and I’m like, you know, he’s always there, he’s always taking up on trips – you know whenever we wanted we would get in, so it was fantastic like you know. And yeah, I think, you know, it was awesome to see him, there were others, Billy Hillman as well. Again, when I was growing up he didn’t live too far away from me either. I grew up with his boys as well who used to come to the youth club. So, I think we always used to go on activities, like Duke of Edinburgh, you know, trips to Alton towers, Oakwood, football trips, athletics. So, I think, you know, you got a really good youth worker contributing to your life and helping you grow up like that, I think, you know, you wanna maybe also give back the same. I think that’s what really impacted me here and I’m able to continue to really do that now.
KW: Oh wow, that’s really inspiring. So do you still keep in touch with any of these people?
AA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah – particularly Steve. He still doesn’t live too far away from here. And he’s since retired but he still does like fifty odd hours a week trying to make the community a better place.
KW: Oh wow, and whilst you were volunteering did you find that there were any frustrations or disappointments at times?
[Benefits of working in your community - 12:33 to 14:02]

AA: No, not really. When I was volunteering, or when you’re working in the community, some people used to say, oh you know what you shouldn’t really work so close to your home because people are always going to rely on you and knock you door for stuff and you’re never going to be able to switch off from work – and I think that’s the beauty of it. I think, you know, the fact that you can contribute and support your community and be available at all hours, you know, to be honest is, I’ve never minded it, to be honest. There were times when I would go on trips with young people and my phone battery would die and I’d have parents phoning my own home because they knew who my family were or they’d be knocking my door because they never lived to far away and they were like we can’t get hold of Ali, how far away are they, you know, and you get these sort of things. You get parents knocking your door asking you to sign forms, passport forms, trip forms, all sorts of things. Asking for advice and I think, you know, crucially if you’re not from that community you’re not giving back to that community and hopefully you’ve got that sort of relationship. So others saw that as a frustration, doing work in their community, but, you know, I think it’s kinda me, I think it makes you what you are today. I think you just got to be a really strong person and be able to manage the different, the work loads and expectations too. I think crucially, because if you’re expecting to be too much and people do rely on you too much then yeah it is hard and it can impact your life. But I think if you can manage it effectively then, you know, you’ll be okay.
KW: Ok and going back to the community then, how do you think the volunteering you did and the volunteering, you know, you help orchestrate now impacts the wider community and contributes to society?
[Volunteering and the community - 14:18 to 15:49]

AA: Yeah, I think it’s massive. There’s not a, I would say there’s not a month that goes by that I don’t get a request for a reference from a young person that I’ve worked with, a request from an employer about an experience that a young person’s put on their CV that they’ve done with me. So I think even until today I’ve got people who are like in their thirties who I’m, who I’m getting reference requests for and I think that just shows the impact of their volunteering – that employers are still looking back at what they were doing ten years ago and how that is important to them today. So I’ve been able to respond back to those references. I’m getting requests for UCAS applications from people who after a long time have decided, do you know what I want to go back to university now but you know I need to get hold of Ali because he remembers me when I was, you know, used to do lots of hours volunteering or used to attend the local youth club. So I think it has a massive effect widely on young people and the wider community and I think mainly particularly because young people find it really difficult often to find opportunities outside of their community and that can be for a host of reasons, like unconscious bias from employers, you know, or, you know, there could be an issue around postcode lottery, whereby some organisations might not give young people a chance because of where they’re from – and I think we’ve always been a very inclusive and love to give opportunities to our young people particularly from the local community because if nobody else will then we certainly will.
KW: And so, for anybody that’s thinking about getting involved with the community what words of inspiration and advice would you have for them?
[Words of inspiration and advice - 16:00 to 16:40]

AA: Yeah, what words of inspiration would I give to somebody who wants to get involved in volunteering with the community – I would say it’s the best thing they can do. You know, there’s no better feeling than helping people from your own community, irrespect of their background. If your able to contribute even just an hour, it goes a long way. So yeah, find your local centre and you can even volunteer on what is of interest to you. It doesn’t have to be about young people. You know, if you’re good at a particular skill then I’m sure that skill will be really useful to the community. So just get involved, get in contact with our project here or other institutions locally, and I’m sure your skills will be welcomed.
KW: Oh wow, and how would you define volunteering, if you had to sum it up?
[Defines volunteering - 16:48 to 17:04]

AA: How would I define volunteering? Oh Wow. [Laughs] Ultimately I would say volunteering is giving up your time to help others or a particular project, when it needs you and also, when you need them.
KW: Ok, brilliant, well I think that’s all I have to ask you, is there anything else you’d like to add?
AA: [Laughs] What else shall I say? I’ve got nothing else to add, I wish the project all the best and yeah if you want to get hold of us follow us on twitter. [laughs] down there.
KW: Thank you for taking the time to see us today Ali and taking your time to speak to us today.
AA: No worries.

• http://chronicle.recueil.net/collection/item/vcs_chronicle_oh_38 (link opens in new window)