National Youth Agency: Comment - More than a role model

In addition, the head of the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights was asked to recruit senior black figures to enlist a cohort of black male role models.

While there is little doubt that this will be helpful, the issues facing in particular young British Afro-Carribean and Pakistani men and the communities in which they live are so much more complex.

Systemic and endemic poverty blight the communities these young people come from in the same way it blights the lives of young people in Britain from a range of ethnic backgrounds. These communities are characterised by a cocktail of low participation, achievement and retention in learning, significant levels of unemployment and people on long-term incapacity benefits, poor physical and mental health profiles, high levels of violent and drug related crime, high levels of teenage pregnancy, and often set in stark and bereft physical infrastructure. These places are the daily reality of the young people who grow up in them juxtaposed against the glittering worlds of affluence and pleasure presented by the media. So while positive role models will help raise aspirations I, for one, don't believe they are anywhere near enough. For me, delivering high quality services with and in communities is the key.