Activities & Services

LAC Education Project

The LAC Education Project is currently funded until August 2009 through the Big Lottery Fund and employs a full time project manager as well as freelance supplementary teachers and support staff. Over 120 children and young people aged between 3 and 14 are currently participating in the project’s activities which consist of Key Stage 2 supplementary classes in Maths, English and Science, a Saturday Arabic School, pre-school nursery provision and parent support activities.

The project’s activities take place in St. Silas Primary School as well as the Greenhouse Multicultural Project and partner organisations involved in the project include the Ethnic Minorities and Travellers Advisory Services (EMTAS), the Race Equality Foundation (REF) and Building Bridges.

It is expected that by the end of the project over 300 children and young people will have participated in the project as well as 140 parents. The children and young people will have increased self confidence, improved education attainment, and a good level of written and spoken skills in Arabic language. Parents will also have gained practical skills and knowledge enabling them to support their children’s education and positive personal development.

As part of the project LAC formed the Arabic Parents Committee (APC) in October 2007 which was launched to encourage Arabic parents’ involvement both in the project and to provide practical support and signposting services relating to their children’s education.

Take a look at some of our Education Project activities.

Research on the Educational Attainment of Yemeni and Somali Children & Young People

Liverpool Arabic Centre (LAC) previously worked in partnership with Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS), the Black and Other Racial Minorities (BRM) Network, and three local schools to commission research on low educational achievement within the Yemeni and Somali communities.

Full report on the Educational Attainment of Yemeni and Somali Secondary School Pupils 2005/06 (English Version)

Executive Summary of report on the Educational Attainment of Yemeni and Somali Secondary School Pupils 2005/06 (English Version)

Executive Summary of report on the Educational Attainment of Yemeni and Somali Secondary School Pupils 2005/06 (Arabic Version)

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Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival 2009

Liverpool Arabic Centre is a founder member and partner in the annual Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival and continues to provide voluntary support to the general delivery of the festival’s activities with a particular focus on promotion and engagement amongst the Arabic community, volunteer recruitment, fundraising and participation / involvement / representation from the Arabic community. This in kind support for the festival has been LAC’s commitment over the last eight years.

The festival continues to build awareness of the Yemeni and wider Arabic community in Liverpool and of culture and traditions whilst adding significantly to the city’s cultural profile and annual festival calendar.

2008's event marked the seventh anniversary of the Liverpool Arabic Arts festival which was a huge success and featured an extremely rich and varied programme.The festival launch took place at the newly refurbished Bluecoat and the increasingly popular Family Day event was held in Sefton Park Palm House to which over 5000 people attended.

During the festival Liverpool Arabic Centre delivered two ‘Taste of Arabia’ Cookery Demonstration sessions which were very well received and were instrumental in encouraging wider participation from the local Arabic community at the ‘Coal, Frankincense and Myrrh’ Photographic Exhibition which was also very well attended.

www.arabicartsfestival.co.uk

The Arabic Heritage of Liverpool

This project is currently funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund until September 2009 and employs a part time project worker as well as freelance artists and volunteers. It is expected that over 30 members of the local Arabic community will participate in this project over the two year period after which a resource pack will be produced.

The project is designed to bring both older and younger generations of the Arabic community together through reminiscence and arts workshops, with a focus on cultural themes such as home, leisure, family, food and work. Older participants will be engaged in activities recounting their personal experiences with younger participants exploring contemporary cultural attitudes and how these have changed over time.

The Arabic community first came to Liverpool in the 19th century and is one of the oldest ethnic minority communities in the UK. However, there is a lack of awareness, understanding, appreciation and preservation of this rich cultural heritage and it's contribution to Liverpool both amongst the non-Arabic and Arabic communities, particularly the younger generation. It is now vital that this rich aspect of Liverpool’s heritage is captured before it is lost.

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Information point

Our office is open Monday - Friday between 10am and 4pm. We provide a range of leaflets and information on local activities and services for all members of the community.

General Advice & Signposting

We provide access to Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) drop in sessions every Wednesday morning between 10am - 12pm at the LAC main office. Anyone needing advice or information on issues such as housing and benefits is welcome to attend the drop in. We also provide help with filling in various forms and an Arabic translator is available during the sessions.

Healthy Living

We also facilitate a Roy Castle FagEnds (Smoking Cessation) drop in session which takes place at LAC every Wednesday between 1pm and 3pm. A specialist BME Stop Smoking Advisor is available during these times to offer individual advice and support to members of the community.

Third Party Recording

Liverpool Arabic Centre is a Third Party Reporting Centre which means we can complete Third Party Reporting forms for anyone who wants to report or record a hate crime incident which has taken place against themselves or others.

• To report an incident and have it investigated you must include your details on the form which will then be sent to Merseyside Police.
• If you do not want to provide your details the incident cannot be investigated but the form can still be sent to the police and help tell them about hate crime that is taking place in a specific area or of a specific nature.

Any type of Hate Crime can be recorded including damage to property, assault, verbal abuse and harassment.

Stronger Communities Project

This project is funded by Liverpool City Council (Community Resource Unit) until March 2011. It employs a part time project worker and administrator to deliver the project’s activities as well as volunteers who provide practical support. The project delivers a variety of social and inclusive activities for both elders and women from the Arabic community which support personal wellbeing as well as social integration and cohesion in the wider community. The project aims to help combat isolation and improve quality of life for vulnerable members of the Arabic community as well as improve the accessibility to local statutory agencies and address user under representation and inequality issues.

It is estimated that over 2,000 vulnerable members of the Arabic community will participate in the project over a year period which also facilitates weekly and monthly advice surgeries in partnership with a number of local advice and information providers such as Wavertree Citizens Advice Bureau, Age Concern Liverpool and Steve Biko Housing Association.

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Fathers & Sons Project

Funding has recently been received from the Parenting Fund to extend the delivery of the Fathers and Sons project until 2011 which has proven extremely successful since its launch in 2007 with Building Bridges. The initial aims of the programme were to proactively address issues and improve relationships strained by migration, changing cultures and cross generational differences between fathers and sons specifically from the Arabic community through a variety of activities based on the promotion of dialogue and discussion. During 2008 a DVD was produced for the project which included participants talking about the problems both fathers and sons face when living between two cultures.

The extended programme will continue to build upon work already completed within the community enabling the development of a bilingual training DVD which will be made available for parents from the Arabic community as well local schools, community organisations and other public bodies. The project also plans to deliver similar pilot activities for mothers and daughters from the Arabic community.