Category: Past Events Published Date
Speaker: Professor Ali Ansari, St Andrews University
Venue: Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, London W1H 4LP
Date: Friday 19th February 2010, 6.45pm-8.30pm
This discussion examines the importance of raising aspirations toimprove life chances of young Muslims growing up in our mostdisadvantaged communities and Mosaic's schools mentoring programmes.
In recent years, politicians and commentators have argued for theimportance of raising aspirations of young people from black and ethnic-minority communitiesin general and Muslim communities in particular. Research shows thatlow aspirations are related to poor academic attainment andprofessional achievement, regardless of social or ethnic group. Lowaspirations can also feed into a general sense of isolation andexclusion from mainstream British life. Despite this, what actuallyworks and what factors are important remain little understood inaspiration raising programmes, even within mentoring programmes.Mosaic, which now provides mentoring programmes in over 50 schoolsacross the UK, has commissioned the leading think-tank Demos toundertake a major evaluation of its programmes to produce a firmevidence base about what works and to set out practical recommendationsand direction for project delivery and broader social policy.
At this event, Jamie Bartlett (senior researcher with Demos) willoutline the findings of the recently-published first results ofMosaic's research programme, a literature review drawing together allrelevant research on the relationship between aspirations andsocio-economic achievement and attainment and emerging evidence on thesuccess of mentoring and aspiration-raising programmes. Khawar Mann,Mosaic Board member, will explain how Mosaic's secondary schoolmentoring programme connects successful Muslims from a wide range ofbackgrounds with young Muslims and their peers in deprived areas of theUK in order to raise aspirations and provide opportunities.
Mr Khawar Mann - Mosaic
Khawar Mann is a founder member of Mosaic who now sits on thenational Mosaic Advisory Board and is a member of Mosaic's SpeakersBureau. Khawar is a partner with Apax Partners, the internationalprivate equity firm, where he specialises in healthcare investments.His recent investments include the hospital groups General HealthcareGroup Ltd in the UK, Capio AB and Unilabs in Europe and ApolloHospitals in India. He has a degree in Medical Sciences and Law fromCambridge University and also an LLM Master of Law. He has an MBA fromThe Wharton School, where he was a Fulbright and Thouron scholar.Khawar began his career as a lawyer with Linklaters in Londonspecialising in Corporate Finance and Intellectual Property. He thenmoved to Weston Medical Group PLC as the Commercial Director beforejoining Apax Partners in 2003. Khawar is a Trustee of The EnterpriseEducation Trust and the Apax Foundation and is also a member of theGovernment Taskforce for Talent and Enterprise.
Jamie Bartlett - Demos
Jamie Bartlett is a senior researcher at Demos. He has workedextensively on issues relating to the Muslim community across Europeand has advised the UK and other governments on a range of social andpublic policy issues. He currently is leading a large project workingwith Mosques to improve their governance; with the Canadian governmenton the relationship between violent and non violent extremism; and withthe University of Exeter to explore Islamist narratives. In 2007, Jamieauthored Muslim Youth Mentoring: A role in tackling violent extremismfor the Department of Communities and Local Government. Most recently,Jamie became the lead consultant on a two-year research study examiningthe impact of mentoring programmes within BAME and Muslim communitiesin raising aspirations. Prior to working for Demos, Jamie was aresearch associate at the international humanitarian agency IslamicRelief.
About Mosaic
Mosaic was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales and convened inNovember 2007 by Business in the Community, one of the Prince'sCharities, to challenge the growing concern around the issues facingyoung Muslims living in deprived areas of Britain. Today Mosaicoperates nationally in London, the West Midlands, East Midlands,Yorkshire & Humber, and the North West as a set of initiativeschampioned by Muslims aimed at raising aspirations and providingopportunity. Support is increasingly gathering internationally.
Mosaic works towards a more integrated and thriving society whereall individuals, regardless of background, are supported in realizingtheir potential.
Mosaic's key concerns, as outlined by its founder, are twofold.Firstly in supporting young Muslims and their peers between the ages of5 and 25 years old who, through no fault of their own, lack access toopportunities in order to maximize their potential to make a positivecontribution to society. Secondly, to address the misunderstanding thathas arisen between the Islamic and Western worlds in recent years.
Mosaic's core aims are:
- To stimulate greater levels of volunteering through a network of partners and, where appropriate, direct delivery
- To nurture and promote talent in Muslim communities, providing positive role models to young Muslims and society
- To promote leadership, teamwork, and civic engagement based onaddressing key social issues of social importance in the UK and beyond