Fasil's story

"I work for an organisation called Adventure Quest, which caters for young people between the ages of 8 to 15 years olds.

Adventure Quest arranges specialist activities (such as horse riding, archery, wall climbing, swimming, canoeing, boxing) for all of its members.

Adventure Quest was formed in September 2007 by five local people, who felt that they needed to do something for the disenfranchised young people in Newham. This was a very daunting task as we had never had any previous experience in working with young people. We decided to put a small programme together and arrange different activities for the young people, in order to get them involved. Although this worked really well at the beginning and appealed to all our participants, we got to a point where we were stuck. We knew that we needed some sort of direction to the organisation as we were arranging weekly activities without any future plans.

As a new organisation we had no idea who to turn to and moral seemed really low. We had built a good foundation and felt that this would all go to waste if we did not get the right direction. To my amazement, the following week I received an email from Yahya Alkas of Muslim Aid who was arranging the Pathway to Citizenship project funded by London Councils. Yahya eloquently explained that an element of this project was partnership and capacity building. This was excellent news and exactly what my organisation needed.

As a result of attending the workshop arranged by Pathway to Citizenship, Adventure Quest has flourished. The organisation has really gone from strength to strength. We now have a sustainable five year plan in place and are able to apply for relevant grants to obtain long-term funding.

During the project we hugely benefited from a one to one session with the course administrator, Jo Jones, who guided us in the right direction. Without Pathway to Citizenship, Jo's and Yahya's help, Adventure Quest would not be where it is now and would not be able to benefit the young people in the local community."

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Pathways to Citizenship, a project run by Muslim Aid and funded by £570,160 from London Councils, works with organisations based in London's Muslim communities to tackle the causes and consequences of disaffection which lead to disaffection and conflict. Adventure Quest was a new organisation.