Aziza has been a member of Fight for Peace for seven years, and plays a key role in empowering young people through her work as a Volunteer Youth Worker. To celebrate Youth Work Week, we had a chat with her to find out more about her journey from Youth Leadership into youth work, how she’s been impacted by our support services, and what it was that made her want to embody the role herself.

“I was nine years old when I joined Fight for Peace, I joined the boxing and Twilight classes, and made a lot of friends, then I became part of the Youth Council (Fight for Peace’s Youth Leadership group, now known as Youth Power). Soon after I realised that boxing wasn’t really the area I wanted to be involved in but I really liked being involved in Youth Leadership at Fight for Peace, talking to other people and getting to know their stories. 

Although she’s left now, Katie was the first person I spoke to when I came to Fight for Peace. She was so sweet but so real at the same time and always made me feel included when I felt excluded. She made Fight for Peace very wholesome. She was especially empowering to us girls, because back when I was doing Twilights I was one of the only girls doing it and as a young Muslim woman it didn’t feel right. Katie always told me, ‘just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you’re not as good as other people,’ and she’d always support me that way. 

Maria and Nicole are wonderful, especially with the Lutadoras they are so observant of all of us girls. We’ll be in the session doing our own thing, or doing stuff together and they’d know every time I wasn’t feeling okay which I think is such a skill in itself. That’s actually inspired me to want to get into youth work as well because I want to be able to pick up on when people are not okay and I want to be able to help others how I’ve been helped.

There was a time when I was in a really dark space, I wasn’t going to school, and youth workers like Maria and Nicole were there during that time and they always listened to me. 

I didn’t want advice at the time, I just wanted someone to listen and they did exactly that and they respected my choice. I definitely saw them as role models to look up to.

I see youth work as helping young people figure out who they are, not telling them who they are, but helping them along the way and being some sort of guidance. I would say I’ve been through a bit at a young age, so using my experience to help others and seeing myself in others is just useful for us to help them.

My point is, youth work is just helping young people find themselves and allowing them to be who they want to be. 

It’s so important for young people to have youth work services around because there’s often no one else. You have to pay for a lot of other things, but with Fight for Peace, let’s say you go to boxing, there are also other things on the side where people are helping you out.

That’s why I think it’s so beneficial to young people, especially teenagers because that’s when they’re going through the most. Just to have someone to listen to you and have the space to be able to talk through things in the 1:1’s we provide is really important.

Because I can be quite a closed person, I didn’t enjoy 1:1’s when I was younger, but when I do them with other people now as a youth worker I just think ‘wow’,  they have a lot that they probably don’t speak about normally.

It makes me think, ‘what if they didn’t have this? What if they didn’t have anyone to talk to and they were just struggling at home without anybody to talk to?’

Ever since I started Fight for Peace, I would see youth workers like Leo, Katie and Maria and it made me think, ‘I want to do this’. I would always bother them about it and I was probably quite annoying. I wanted to help kids, so I did psychology at college because I wanted to be able to support people in some way, and that made me realise that’s what I want to do for a fact. I’m grateful for where I am now, I’m on the path of doing so. 

It gives me a purpose in life knowing that I need to help or support this person, and figure out what the best way to go about it is. It’s like a puzzle to me, and it just fits together.”

Youth Work at Fight for Peace is a key part of our Five Pillar methodology, combining Support Services with Boxing and Martial Arts, Education, Employability and Youth Leadership to support young people to reach their full potential.