Why youth clubs are so important to Kalsoom

Kalsoom’s sense of community was born at her local youth club in Rochdale. The motivation to support her local area saw her launch Aspire 2 Inspire, an organisation providing workshops, clubs and a food bank for people in her community. When she was approached to run the DofE, Kalsoom said it was a “dream”, and after recognising that young people were more isolated since the Covid-19 pandemic, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to provide young people with new experiences, new skills and an accredited award at the end.

“Aspire 2 Inspire Communities is a community-based organisation that aims to empower, educate and encourage community members to break barriers and achieve milestones. At the moment we are tackling issues surrounding food poverty and were one of the first community organisations in this area to open a culturally appropriate food bank.

“When we got approached for DofE I thought 100% I want to do it from Aspire, it’s a dream. We’re not just giving kids an opportunity to learn new skills, we’re actually giving them an accredited thing, they will actually have something to show for themselves.

“There are definitely still barriers to DofE from a Muslim perspective and, I think, with me being a young Muslim woman, parents, people in the community know me and that’s been a good thing for us. I wanted to do DofE because I know there are so many young girls that would really benefit. I’m confident parents will let their daughters join us because we’ve built that trust.

“The funding has really helped. We’re telling all the kids that we are going to provide them with backpacks, with tents. They don’t need to worry about all of that and the only thing they’ll probably need to get for themselves is a decent pair of hiking boots. I’m hoping DofE really helps our young people with everything in life. Even now, all this stuff I do, organising events, being there for my community, it came from the youth club and it was my happiest place as a young child.”

Aspire 2 Inspire is a community organisation based in Rochdale providing workshops, clubs and a foodbank for people in the local area. They have been able to set up the DofE and remove any financial barriers for young people through funding from our Access without Limits community grant – made possible through generous support from The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust.