Breaking Boundaries Bradford with Community Champion Haseeb Siddique

Breaking Boundaries is a three-year programme (2018 –2021) funded by Spirit of 2012, supported by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and The Institute of Community Cohesion (Icoco).

We sat down with our Bradford Community Champion Haseeb Siddique as he spoke to us about his involvement with Breaking Boundaries through the West Bowling Youth Initiative. 

What is your name?
Haseeb Siddique.

How old are you?
20-years-old.

What is the name of the community organisation, club, group, company that you belong to?
West Bowling Youth Initiative.

In which of our cities are you based?
Bradford.

How did you become a part of Breaking Boundaries?
I became a part of Breaking Boundaries through Haqi my Youth Worker and the youth work he does in my area of West Bowling.

What attracted you to becoming a Community Champion?
The impact I could have on the youth in my community is what attracted me to become a community champion. To be able to do things to improve my local community and become a real role model to the other youths in my community to become involved.

What would you say are the best things you've learnt through your training?
My sports coaching, patience and communication are the things I've learnt and developed.

Tell us about the Community event you are planning? 
The multi-sports summer holiday sessions runs twice a week throughout the holidays. It allows kids to see their friends whilst playing sports to keep active.

It also allows kids to try new sports to see which they enjoy and may want to continue in the future. As well as allowing children from different backgrounds to connect through sport.

How important is it for young people like yourself to be involved in the community and why?
It is important because being young, I can connect with the younger people and adapt to their needs. We can all be part of the change needed to build safer and more cohesive communities, if we are taught to see similarities rather than differences from a young age it will help with building more empathy and connection.

What difference do you hope to make in your local community?    
To lower the number of people hanging around on street corners and offer them somewhere they can go to socialise with their friends.

What has been your most inspirational moment in Breaking Boundaries?
Due to Covid-19 opportunities have been restricted however, through Breaking Boundaries we have still managed to put together a session for the community. It was incredibly meaningful to be able to still deliver an event and help people to feel connected especially during this time.

If you had to describe your experience of Breaking Boundaries in three sentences what would you say?
Bringing kids from the community together. Making kids happy to get into sports. Promoting community cohesion.

During this period of lockdown do you have any advice you would like to share on how to stay connected to other people and keep active/fit/well? 
During lockdown, I kept fit by going jogging in the park or playing football in the garden. Just keeping active helped when lockdown restrictions were relaxed, and I could go back to playing football and needed less time to readjust to the level of activity.

Also, I called friends and family to help stay connected and tried to keep my daily routine the same. This also made the isolation easier as I was talking to people all the time and not sitting alone.