Somali Men's Forum > 1st Phase - Youth Work  /  2nd Phase - Evolving the forum  /  Characteristics of the group so far  /  Key steps for the future

2nd Phase - Evolving the forum

 
Anecdotally, we understand that there may be upwards of 23000 people from Somalian backgrounds in Manchester.  There are large numbers of female-headed households and a noticeable number of single men who are disconnected from family and other formal community structures.  Since the Manchester City Council survey of 1994 there has been no systematic attempt to update the city about how the Somali community has developed.  We have published on how to do action research about health issues in this community (Moran R., Mohamed Z. and Lovel H., 2006.  Participatory research processes about health with Somali refugee people seeking asylum.  In Temple and Moran eds. 2006, Doing Research with Refugees.  Issues and Guidelines.  London:  Policy Press).  However, the findings of that, and other smaller scale work in this community, has so far failed to activate strategic responses that can begin to address some of the very acute needs that we know exist.   We welcome the support from Lloyds TSB that enables us to move this agenda forward.

Our overall aim is to enable the development of a Somali Forum that can communicate a contemporary understanding about the characteristics, needs, skills and aspirations of the Somali communities in Manchester. 

We have three objectives            

 ·         To involve both members from Somali identified community groups in the city and other individuals who are disconnected from those groups

·         To apply our community empowerment and action research processes that can enable Somali people from the forum to develop evidence bases about their needs

·         To release local Somali capacity to communicate with the structures of the city about the needs in the future