Young Roots
Community Builders is a youth-led social enterprise, working with young people mostly from black British or African-Caribbean backgrounds. An important aim for the project was to improve inclusion and community cohesion and to better integrate black history into the narrative of First World War heritage.
The project involved a group of 23 young people aged 11–16 from Haringey who took part in over 20 workshops and research visits to learn about the role and contribution made by black people in the First World War. In addition to archival research, participants recorded interviews with the historians they met.
Their discoveries were shared widely through a website, a mobile phone app, a film, a resource pack sent to 50 secondary schools and a 12-banner exhibition which toured local venues, including the youth enterprise centre that hosted the project. The app follows the story of a young African soldier’s experience of climbing the ranks within a colonial regiment. There was also an event held at the youth centre to mark Black History Month in 2016 and encourage more visitors to the exhibition.
