BME: London academy offers voice to young Muslims

The Youth Empowerment Scheme (Yes) group is particularly keen to ensure the voices of young Muslims are heard in the run up to the 2012 Olympic Games in the capital.

The academy will form one aspect of Yes's Islamic youth work training programme, Peace, which starts this summer with a series of workshops at youth clubs, mosques and madrassas in Tower Hamlets.

The Government Office for London is funding the 30,000 scheme, which is being developed with Tower Hamlets Youth and Community Service.

The workshops, aimed at both Muslim and non-Muslim 16- to 21-year-olds, will focus on what Islam says about youth work on themes such as participation, equality and empowerment.

Following the workshops, four Muslim young people will be selected from each of the six areas of the borough to apply for a Muslim youth leadership programme and will form the Muslim Youth Work Academy.

Anam Hoque, youth adviser at Yes, said: "The idea of the academy is to help the young Muslims tap into areas where there is under-representation."