About Us
Leeds Muslim Youth Forum is an organisation that supports young people and helps them find the best solutions to the often-difficult issues that they have to deal with on a daily basis. The Forum provides young people with a range of support and development opportunities which enable them to become more active within their community, and have a positive influence on others.
We do this by enrolling, supporting and training young people from the local community to lead on a range of projects such as; young people’s events, cohesion and inter-faith work, recreational & leisure activities, leadership training, mentoring and inter-generational work.
Why it is Needed
Through this project we as young people were attempting to retain this history in the form of stories, film, archives and memorabilia and cascade this to our peer group and other sections of the community.
In charting this history, we aim to give our community the knowledge and confidence to be proud of their heritage while still being confidently immersed in modern society today.
The project is therefore one which is important to the older generations from within the target community as well as the second, third and fourth generation who need to be made aware of this heritage. It will also be of interest to the wider and non-Asian communities in recognising this aspect of local history in Leeds.
The Story
Looking back over sixty years the initiative, explores the arrival of the Pakistani / Kashmiri community who first arrived in the Leeds area in meaningful numbers in the 1950s and 1960s, largely as young economic migrants. Having resided in the city for over six decades, with many now elderly or sadly deceased we recall their lived experiences. Thus, helping to avoid eroding the rich history of their contribution to the city, to the development of their communities and their influence on later generations.