At present, Amity continues to organise a range of services and activities. These can be summarised as follows:
1. Mentorial service
The main ethnic minority group we work with is the Turkish-speaking community. Unfortunately as a community this group face a lack of horizons which is handed down the generations. Hence with this service we hope to match children and young people with mentors from similar backgrounds. The mentor develops a friendship with their mentees through which they can support their mentees in many areas from schoolwork to career advice as well as social and residential activities. Most incurred costs are subsidized by Amity.
2. Tutorial Service
For the past four years we have provided a tutorial service that aims to supplement National Curriculum in core subject such as English, Mathematics and Science. Tutors meet and provide one–to–one tuition for their tutees once or twice a week. We have obtained encouraging feedback from parents of our tutees since a visible improvement in their schoolwork have been seen. Likewise many parents welcome academic support since most states schools in our target area achieve lower results in comparison to the national average. Moreover we aim to support our tutees until they achieve or exceed national averages in GCSEs and A-Levels. Finally by assisting them to obtain a good set of qualifications, we believe it will make career choices easier later in their educational lifetime.
3. Student Hostels
As a charity working to support education, we have discovered some students who are not based in London require suitable environments to prosper in their studies. In this service Amity act as mediator to bring together like minded students who become housemates. Furthermore Amity also becomes a guarantor for the rented property which is paid by the students. In some circumstances the charity provides grants for students unable to make contribution to the rent due to a poor background. The foundation not only supports students during the set up of hostels, but also aims to monitor and optimise the environment within the hostel. This is achieved by the appointment of a volunteer representative within the hostel, who’s duty involves implementing and encouraging others to follow the daily program. The program includes periods for cooking, studying and cleaning. Responsibility for each chore is divided fairly and equally.
4. Periodical Parent Meeting
Having worked with the Turkish-speaking community for a number of years, we have developed a strong relationship with many parents. The purpose of the periodical parent meeting is to provide a platform where issues concerning our community can be discussed. By parents coming together on a regular basis we hope resolutions for concerns can be developed and implemented. As a charity we like to work with the community for the community and this service gives us a great opportunity to develop projects and services which will tackle problems at our doorsteps. Some topics discussed include “cultural clashes between Turkish and British society” and “Identity crisis faced by the younger Turkish society”.
5. Periodical Adolescent Meeting
The aim of periodical adolescent is to congregate young people between the ages of 13 – 18. The sessions are organised and directed by an instructor appointed by Amity. Various topics are discussed aiming to promote their mental and social well-being, these cover issues from culture to drugs misuse and community to the wider world. We have found that regular meetings between adolescent have lead to friendships that support one another to do good while discouraging anti-social behaviour.
6. Weekend Supplementary School Service
For a number of years we have provided a weekend supplementary school service to our beneficiaries. This kind of service is tailored for students from a Turkish speaking background. However, we also accept students from the local community wanting additional help in core curriculum subjects such as Maths, English and Science. We are able to give our students a more “individual” learning experience, as our class sizes are smaller than mainstream schools. One of our main aims is to give our students every opportunity to achieve academic success so that they are able to meet their full potential.
We have also found through experience that teaching subjects in their Mother-tongue, gives students more confidence and a greater understanding of the subject(s) being taught, which in turn helps students in their mainstream schooling.
This service has come to existence by the request of the local communities whom we work with. We are always adapting and changing our services and projects depending on the needs and requests of our beneficiaries. Moreover working closely with the local community means we can establish a loop of positive feedback where community issues are dealt together with the community, using community resources.
Furthermore we not only consider our pupils achievements at academic examinations, but we also take into account their entire well-being. This is accomplished by also mentoring our pupils with respect to their future and the wider world. In addition expression of creativity is supported via after school clubs and societies.
Likewise we not only provide children additional help with the National Curriculum core subjects, but also the opportunity for students from a Turkish background to take Turkish classes and to learn about and understand their Turkish culture and heritage; thereby helping to promote the development of students’ linguistic skills, cultural identity and religious awareness.