'Destructive Innovation' at Mertom Road

All change please; mind the gap!

My next story offers more promise and hope.

The Sikh community and most of its leaders have always prided themselves on their capacity for innovation, discussed here in terms of the proven outcomes and the benefits that the community has enjoyed at the Sikh Temple at Merton Road. There has been a history of early impetus for proactive and collaborative action as well as collectively enforced subservience, over and above political aspirations, to the higher ideals for providing facilities for worship and community use at the modern temple in Southfields, South London.

The temple membership also reflects a wide geographical catchment area comprised mainly but not entirely of Sikhs who arrived in Britain at different times from East Africa largely in response to pressures to abandon their homes and careers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.  Many describe rich and enduring histories in East Africa which they abandoned voluntarily to move to ‘greener pastures’ and in the process even managed to externalise their funds to safe bank accounts in Britain. This is mentioned here in so far as it seems to matter to the people who like to display their affluence. It also matters to others, not only in Southfields but also elsewhere to people who reflect on their wealth when they define their campaigns for leadership.

Other Sikhs arrived after facing shock and horror at the hands of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin but were quickly absorbed by their welcoming brethren who had been well settled in the broader geographical region. It is said that the composition of the community is largely defined by Sikhs who have jobs and homes in the region.

There is an impressive history of highly successful service delivery by a well defined and highly focussed management group at the temple. A long list of committees have offered almost selfless leadership and safeguards to deliver sound and enriching religious programmes. However, there have been cold and icy undercurrents in the seemingly still glacier of Sikh brotherhood. A number of people seem to consider that they were treated badly by previous managements. Four or five notable members also endured hostility and abuse and left to make way for other ‘aspirants’ who may have benefitted from their allegiances with the powerbase. A pressure group realised that they would achieve more by building a separate temple. They left many years ago to establish a seemingly competitive provision not too far away. But all this is history. No one seems to have suffered any enduring trauma.

Moving closer to my thesis, the temple has been unique in successfully divesting power in some ways but also in discarding somewhat hostile power play which was apparently fuelled by dynastic allegiances and contradicting forces. Always looking at the positive side, a number of younger Sikhs appear to have gained valuable experience in community leadership. They have the potential for delivering further outcomes.

But communities lose momentum when neither the real nor the implied leadership fails to recharge itself. This writer is less concerned with the recent reflections of intrigue but more interested in the organisational restructuring. A ‘Board of Management’ has been installed and as is always the case with large scale organisational change, some people may perceive to be evicted while others may remove themselves. Neither the implied nor any real evictions as well as verbal or silent resignations merit attention here. However, I am very interested in finding out more about the Board of Management as an organisational model.

More on this later if and when information comes to hand.

However, consider this; for innovation to be effective it normally destroys what it seeks to replace.

Note: The concept of ‘creative destruction' is attributed to Josef  Schumpeter, the Austrian economist. It is well represented in history of economics and business ideas.

Trials and tribulation of Neville Road

Not much has changed since the last posting on this blog; at least on the surface… but there are always underlying currents which reflect the aspirations for the future guardianship of a community.

Two Sikh temples have provided interesting examples of guardianship. The temple on Neville Road saw the un-ceremonial exit of the former board of trustees just they tried to grapple with a useful agenda of change. There were notable but well guarded dissention between the outgoing trustees themselves but they realised to their great pain that their ammunition had run dry. They had promised much but the fundamental change that they were capable of delivering did not materialise. Visits to the temple highlighted the following signs of distress:

-          The trustees had lost the confidence of the more influential members of the congregation. However, very little effort was put in to win it back. The trustees went into the elections with their eyes shut but secretly hoping that their mandate could be retained by a notable application of aggression and bullying; a concern that was felt by people within the congregation and a few independent observers.

-          There was also a realisation that much as the outgoing trustees wanted to redress some of their own shortcomings; they had come to accept a natural end to their role as custodians and stakeholders of the temple at a time when other aspirations outside the temple started to look more appealing. There is no suggestion that the powerbase of the temple had been used to gain visibility and respect but community leadership can be a useful adjunct to other bigger and more visible roles in public life.

-          Sections of the community with significant presence were largely ignored or under-consulted, notably young people and women.  Modern Sikh youth in a evolving British society are highly motivated and conscientious but they are unable to forge a partnership with leadership which is mostly unable to win their confidence. There is a gaping chasm between Sikh leaders and the youth in Sikh society; it will widen further unless leadership strives to find new and innovative solutions to gain the trust of the younger members of the society.

In most cases and not just reflecting the debacle at Neville Road, Sikh leaders tend to define the eligibility of the youth to engage with the leadership by virtue of their ability to demonstrate command and compliance to religious symbolism. In almost all cases the leadership has not questioned its own claims to legitimacy and their own capacity to engage with young people. Generalisations can prove to be hazardous but it most unlikely that Sikh youth wish to become the temple managers of tomorrow. They have other aspirations and perhaps, even ambitions about the role and place of their communities in the wider society.

Indeed, have Sikh leaders examined their role in Prime Minister David Cameron’s ‘big society’? The answer does not lie in Sikh leaders proudly going to Downing Street for tea. It lies more in inviting Mr Cameron for tea at local community functions where local stakeholders are carefully selected and represented. This is a good time for Sikh leaders to ‘calm down’ and to allow the younger members of their communities to take the lead in discussing the agenda for community action with David Cameron.

Sikh leaders should define their success in terms of how they need to become agents for change and not as blockages to change.

Do Sikhs want to play their part in David Cameron's 'Big Society'?

How Can the Sikh Community become involved in David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’?



Britain’s coalition government and Prime Minister David Cameron in particular have been putting forward proposals for the Big Society. What does this mean for the Sikhs who form a significant minority in the country?


The fact that the vast majority of Sikhs wish to be seen to be loyal to the aspirations of government, whatever their political persuasion, is not in doubt. The Sikhs see themselves as ‘nation builders’ and those who arrived in the UK from small and highly visible minorities in East Africa also know why investment in mainstream societies is very important. Those Sikhs who have migrated from India have also, with a few exceptions, enjoyed tremendous respect from the wider community for being dedicated and hard working.


Hard work and success, however it is defined, is also a benchmark of the new economic heritage of the Sikh communities in the United Kingdom. I expect to carry out a small survey of Gurdwara leaders and hope to come back with a few answers.


It is also important to open the question to Sikh communities themselves. I am hoping to talk to potentially influential people; they are unlikely to be leaders per se, but they will be the people who I consider to have the open mind and more importantly the vision to make some suggestions. It is also worth noting that the big society has always been there in the Sikh consciousness and many Sikh institutions may have played a useful part in their local societies. The problem is that Sikhs are not very good at PR. In some cases they believe in ‘getting on’ with the task and many a local cause and project may have received Sikh funding but the actions may not have received the publicity. But that is not what Mr Cameron has in mind.


It would be good to talk to Mr Cameron as well. How do David Cameron and his colleagues in Government wish to engage minority communities such as the Sikhs in the Big Society? We have made some plans to ask these questions.

Do Gurdwara leaders wish to win respect?

It is decision time for Sikh Gurdwara leadership; the question they have to address is this - how can they win respect from their congregations where it is lacking? The question is 'if' and not 'how' and 'why'?



The foregoing commentaries have celebrated the fact that the Sikhs in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have succeeded in building fine temples and other premises for social and community use. The next phase of the debate is to address the vital question: are Sikh communities benefitting from community resources?


While talking to some young people at the Neville Road Gurdwara a few months ago, the discussion tended to lead to the following outcomes, each of which needs to be debated critically:


How does a Gurdwara define success?
 This would depend on what one means by success. If the function of a Gurdwara is to address the spiritual and religious needs of the greatest number of Sikh people with the most significant spiritual needs on a continual basis, then we seem to be heading towards a few answers. On the basis of current evidence, one may predict, on the balance of probabilities that ‘success’ is possible to achieve but we are probably not there as yet.

Success would mean two positions,

Either

a) That Sikh Gurdwara leadership perceives a role to address the spiritual needs of all Sikh populations but the greatest single denominator should also be the needs of young people and others who must be helped to acquire a sense of community.

Or,

b) That the Sikh’s Gurdwara leadership does not accept that community development is a part of their role. They are in the business of running temples and all the ‘four doors’ of the Gurdwara are open to anyone (not only Sikhs) who may wish to participate in religious meetings and classes under their supervision. They, as the leadership are not interested in or able to provide a proactive service to the community owing to lack of resources or more likely due to lack of vision. They may believe that it is not necessary to have strong communities in order to have a strong sense of religion.

Or,


c) That the Gurdwara is a spiritual house of God and issues such as community harmony and community development is not the responsibility of the Gurdwara. There is a need for these initiatives but Gurdwara leaders are not either obliged or more likely equipped to perform these tasks.


d) The responsibility for community advancement and building positive relationships within the Sikh community and with all other communities must be the role of specialists or professional people in the Sikh community who can bring special insights into this major challenge. All they expect is comfortable place to meet and to hold meetings with due regard to Sikh practice, namely there should be no access to alcohol or unwholesome food with non-vegetarian content. This outcome provides a major challenge to Sikh leaders, namely the masters of Gurdwara assets.


What does the community expect from Gurdwara leaders?

a) To answer this critical question, should someone not consult with the Sikh community? Where are the communities most likely to converge? At the Gurdwara or at weddings and funerals, most likely the other events will also take place at the Gurdwara. With the exception of one or two Gurdwaras where there is a strong sense of community, Gurdwara congregations seem to be yearning for engagement, for investment in collective energy and for achieving success and recognition for engaging with the wider community as a whole.

b) Where the Gurdwara leadership is not interested in supporting community development initiatives, they should come forward and say so. There is no harm in being open and frank as it will hopefully stir others to come forward. They cannot be the architects of change without being engaged in building the new communities.


c) On the other hand, those Sikh Gurwara leaders who wish to invest in community welfare because these actions will satisfy their ‘survival needs’, it is time for them to invite the professional and competent people in their midst and to declare their options. They must declare their interest in becoming the facilitators and agents who may wish advance the community development agenda but they may not wish to be engaged in the development of action plans and delivery of the community development process. While this outcome may be initially perceived to be disappointing, a mature Sikh leader who declines personal involvement but seeks professional input will win my respect.


It is decision time for Sikh Gurdwara leadership; do they wish to win respect?


It is likely that very few Sikh leaders will be totally determined to avoid the responsibility for developing their communities. It is more likely that many leaders will not recognise their personal and organisational shortcomings and that they may not appreciate the fact the world believes in specialisation. The more qualified people in education, community and leadership development are well represented in the most Sikh communities. They are waiting to be asked. They need access to resources which are most likely to be meeting space and a few cups of cha.


Gurdwara leaders must make up their minds. The young people who may benefit from a range of initiatives that are commonly grouped under ‘community development’ may be their own sons and daughters. The Sikh ‘youth’ must first of all assemble and exchange their views about community needs and benefits within their own forums and at their own level. Only then will they be able to take part on joint action which is beneficial to the wider community.


When they cannot first and foremost develop their own proposals, they are unlikely to have respect for Gurdwara leadership. As a result they will be further denied the benefits of the central purpose of spiritual development which is to form strong and purposeful life in the community. Strong and successful communities with good links at the grassroots are more likely to want to worship together. Without the bottom up engagement of young people and more diversified input from professional people, Sikh Gurdwara leaders are likely to pass the baton to a shrinking pool of talent who are more likely to be people like themselves.

Boardroom Squabbles: Is it not time to redefine what Sikhs should mean by success?

Success and Sikhism in the next decade...

We all know a little bit about what this means. Do we indeed? I have been looking into decision making processes of two major Sikh Temples and note that they are not very different from the boardroom ‘ousters’ in business or corporate life. Many a chief executive or chairman is asked to leave (to use polite language during this Holy Season of Christmas) when they least expect to be served notice.

Are Temple ‘politics’ driven by different agenda? Are these politics in the true sense? One would like to think so but err…the answer is ‘no’. The sources of conflict do vary significantly and indeed the drivers for change are mostly different. But people in contention believe that they have better solutions to offer and in some cases change is imposed by leaning on ‘external factors’ – power and wealth, which have nothing to do with offering subservient service to a place of worship. While the process of prolonged consensus creation, in some cases, may challenge the stamina and resilience of some members of the community, it seems to be a healthy way to resolve issues. The alternatives can be horrendous; especially where people resort to ‘strong-arm tactics’ (Do you get the gist of my point?) and the emerging solution appeals to no one, especially those who may spend a few days in the cooler...

In the main, while conflict can be constructive, it must also be managed creatively. Many people claim to ‘hate’ conflict when in many cases they have a problem of dealing with it. In a recent case, the causes of conflict were trivial and its resolution did not require a mastery of rocket science. The essence of the conflict was to use it as a lever to challenge authority or credibility of the incumbent committee. That was clearly wrong because neither side was willing to identify the real problems and to address them openly without resorting to personality bashing.

As 2009 draws to a close it is important to put all this debate into perspective. The first important lesson is that Sikh institutions are doing well by most standards; there is no common standard and perhaps there is not a place for one. The second major outcome is that Sikh communities continue to achieve if not survive in different conditions throughout the world. More and more temples are being built and new facilities are being added. For some, this is a measure of success but for increasing number of Sikhs, investment in infrastructure must be realigned with the development of the Temple as a multidimensional community organisation. While religious or pastoral issues must prevail, the Sikh community needs to invest in succession planning; bringing in young talent and new energy to deal with the non-religious agenda as a starting point. There is a strong body of knowledge and expertise relating to the preaching and dissemination of the religious doctrines of the Sikh faith. There is also substantial consensus - the religion is not torn by accrimonious debate relating to its fundamentals. There will be more focus on this aspect later.

There is a view that the Sikh religion is a great religion but it is in the hands of wrong people. This is grossly untrue as the management of the religious protocol or 'maryada' of a temple does not need the same type of skills that are required for community advancement, leadership training for women or critical issues in health and welfare. Where the people with religious duties do not have the skills to manage the broader agenda of community development other people with relevant expertise need to be brought in. There must be a duality of roles and functions and where these roles can be carried out with sincerity and caution, the whole Temple will be judged to be ‘successful’ or ‘progressive’. The issue is therefore about defining what we mean by success. Temple managements can be very good, resourceful and adept in the planning and delivery of religious programmes. The same cannot be said about their ability to envision, plan and deliver the community action programmes which will draw in young people, the mainstream community and growing number of professional Sikhs who also expect to see growth and development in the broader 'community development' aspects of Sikh life in the UK.

These are the real challenges for the next decade….economic success needs to be realigned with community empowerment in a changing society. How is this going to be achieved? Sikh infrastructure must equally be used for new and more challenging community development objectives, the successful resolution of which will bring more Sikhs to the Temple...

Alistair Darling and the Sikhs

" Really?"

I was waiting for today’s Pre-Budget Report to see how we can develop this programme for our collective consideration. How can the Sikh and other Asian communities respond to the economic challenges facing our country?

One more time: what do we mean by ‘new heritage’? By our country, I mean Britain, in case that needs to be clarified. I also go back to an earlier comment about who are the people who represent the ‘new heritage’? The answer is that we are addressing the new heritage of all immigrants as well as the British Nationals who have been coming home, as I did from Uganda in 1972 following the expulsion. However, my message is addressed to the Asian community only because I have had access to the Sikh, Muslim and Hindu societies in the UK. I understand the community representational systems in the ‘South Asian’ community better than any other community. I have a very good understanding of the Sikh community, its structures, leadership and the funding mechanisms which have led to the development of the ‘new heritage infrastructure’ which I estimate is worth £3 billion today and another £1 billion could be the size of the ‘working budget’ that the community may be dealing with every year at market prices. What this means is that the Sikh community has an inbuilt mechanism of volunteering, or ‘kar sewa’ or, the contribution of time voluntarily to achieve community objectives. In determining the new economic heritage, we have to remember that much of the £1 billion is in the form of volunteering time, but not entirely.


What did Alistair Darling say to the Sikhs?
Well, nothing directly! Putting Party politics aside, the Chancellor talked about the struggle before we can get out of the recession but that things should get better by 2011, with the next year helping to make a sure but important start. We have to deal with the major debt of the country as a priority, which means that the cutbacks in public services and the search for more efficient ways of doing things will be the key challenge facing everyone, including the voluntary sector of which all Sikh charities are also a key part. The Hindu, Gujarati and Muslim community organisations are also important ‘players’ in this sector.

Focus on critical debate
Alistair Darling did not address the Sikhs during the budget statement but it is abundantly clear that they can make a positive contribution in the following ways:


1. Ensure that the religious agenda is successfully managed by people who are most suitable for the delivery of the religious services, the diwans, paths, kirtans and community events; the weddings, birth and death ceremonies for all members of the various temples.
2. Release resources from the community to critically assess and plan the challenge for providing community services covering health, welfare, education, community development, leisure and cultural development by utilising the vast assets that the community has at its disposal. There are rooms, halls, offices and open spaces at each Sikh temple awaiting better utilisation.
3. Release skills, knowledge and professional expertise which is present in the congregations. Every Sikh temple has access to a vast number of people who can make an immediate contribution. Indeed there are people waiting to be asked. There are young people who want to be engaged in community development but do see a formal participation in the religious programmes as they only way they can make a contribution. They see themselves as participants in the religious life but not as leaders, activists or volunteers. They want to get involved in the mainstream issues affecting the community as well as the larger community. They want to be involved as visionaries and active community developers. They need access to resources and physical space which can be used to develop new community programmes and projects.
4. Create new forms of leadership to take this part of the agenda forward. Many of the current ‘quasi’ religious leaders may not be too pleased to hear this. But they are not being asked to step aside; only that they empower other people to plan and deliver ‘the community development part’ of the Community Programme, covering youth leadership, women’s projects and programmes for the elderly. Successful leaders know how to get other people to deliver the various parts of the community plan; they cannot deliver everything on their own.
5. Recognise that the wider community programme is a joint responsibility. When talking to Sikh leaders who are hard-pressed even to run the pastoral or religious side of the agenda, I sometimes hear the following statements:

- ‘What you are saying about programmes for the elderly and mental health for women are the responsibility of the city council and the government’.

- ‘Our youngsters will only go to the modern sports centres built by the council’

- ‘Our young men and women do not want to work for the community. They are too modernised and westernised’.

- ‘Professional people such as doctors, dentists, accountants and engineers will not contribute their time to the community’.

- ‘We have tried but we do not have the funds’.

- ‘The funders will never fund our projects’.

- ‘Our council is only interested in collecting the rates. They will not support us’.


To all these statements, I have one response -“Really?” More to follow on this later. But, is this not a good time for many people who are reading this now to come forward and to take part in the debate? Good, well managed debate should lead to positive action. Now, I can hear you say “Really?”

Reaping the benefits of new heritage infrastructure

An Early Statement on My Thesis

OPPORTUNITIES
Major Achievements of South Asian Communities should not detract from huge potential for community action:


The development of vast number of community assets has generated capacity and huge possibilities for undertaking community and public services for the local authorities in which temples are mosques are based. The first part of my thesis aims to distinguish between three types of activities undertaken at these sites and also the skills that are needed in each case. This early projection of my analysis suggests that the results are not uniformly distributed.


SCOPE
The three major strands of activities that are undertaken at community and religious sites are:


a) Planning, delivery and management of religious programmes; programming of religious events- weddings, religious anniversaries, deaths, naming ceremonies and so on. This is a core area and requires cultural background and knowledge of religious protocol and ceremonies. Consequently, only people specific backgrounds may undertake these roles and fulfil responsibility for the ‘pastoral’ needs of the communities.

b) There are many small scale ‘forays’ into action for community support and occasional projects to develop outreach into local groups:, e.g. collections for service clubs, e.g. the Lions Club does attract sponsorship and support from temples, collections to pay for natural disasters. Many temples run internal programmes for members, especially women, people with disabilities and elderly but very little is known about their aims and objectives and more importantly how these initiatives are evaluated. There may also be a tendency to accept less as enough.

One of the most significant areas of action in many minority communities is the provision of secure, warm and well lit community space for the elderly. However, in the main there is little evidence of structured planning. People come in a voluntary basis to for a ‘chat and chai’ and while this does serve the needs for many people who need company and access to friends, the lack of formal provision when it is possible. The fact that most of these informal friendship groups are based in places of religious worship may also deter other people from coming in. Informal groups of elderly people could well be tapped to provide access to larger networks in the community. The use of discrete interventions to offer help for some of the prevailing concerns could also provide better benefits than just offering space. For example there is a concern that many elderly people are depressed and may have health conditions which could benefit from early intervention. There is a need to take in wider views on this issue and to attempt to build a reliable consensus.

 c) The scope for providing structured, possibly large scale projects aimed at community development and the delivery of services to community need to be taken on board.


Major opportunities are certainly being missed and urgent and concerted action is much needed. However, it is felt that many of these responsibilities may not be well served by religious leadership or priests from non-Western backgrounds. More significantly, community action needs professional skills.

What can be done to use community assets which are underutilised during the weekdays? Apart from religious space the sanctity of which must be certainly protected, there will be hundreds of rooms, community halls, offices and also open spaces which could be put into effective use for the benefit of the communities that own them. I reiterate that there is no suggestion of sharing ‘religious facilities’ with people from other faiths and diverse backgrounds.

Local authorities need to work with community organisations and to assess the potential for joint ventures. Costs and benefits need to be shared. However, to make joint ventures sustainable, South Asian communities need to recruit professional support in the form fulltime staff on pay and volunteers to sustain the administrative functions.

PUBLIC SPENDING CUTS WILL AFFECT EVERYONE
As public spending cuts take shape and services are curtailed, is there not a logical role for community organisations to fill the gaps in provision or even to start new services? There are key issues here about dealing with expectations and mindsets which militate against community-led provision of some services, starting with the following:
• Local authorities have always provided certain services. This cannot change.
• The community does not have the expertise

• The community does not have the resources

• Members of the community will not welcome this role; it’s the role of the authorities.

• Why should community organisations be required to provide services anyway? Their members pay their taxes and contributions to the state; it is their entitlement.

CALL FOR ACTION
There is no evidence that community organisations have started to consider these options and whether a few may even respond. Instead of offering services on short-term contracts, they need to become comprehensive service providers in their own right but always working within the policy priorities of the local authorities or other commissioning agencies. How is this going to be done?  A number of proposals will be discussed here and the scope for tangible action will also be considered. Proposals will be put forward and hopefully, new joint ventures will be formed to service critical needs.

There is idle capacity in the temples and mosques. The religious programmes of each community need to remain under the control of existing leaders. However, professional management teams need to be brought in the tackle the community development agenda. Even more pertinent is the need for Asian community organisations to work as Third Sector voluntary organisations and to share the workload, capacity and perhaps even a proportion of the costs to meet the needs for specialist provision in the community.

The next step lies in the formation of new Asian professional services organisations to compete in the mainstream market for public services and to use their underutilised physical capacity to gain competitive advantage. Many key premises remain underutilised. It does not make economic and business sense when public spending cutbacks will restrict the supply of premises for essential work programmes to benefit local communities through strategic transformational action.

Introducing ‘new heritage community champions’

Early thoughts on how to work with providers of new heritage benefits!


I am grateful for a few responses and know that many people are reluctant to name themselves in a public debate for many reasons, not to mention contractual undertakings with employers. It is the feedback that I want …even a flying pigeon will do if you can find one!

It is also time to look at a few examples in further detail. I will be talking to Kuldip Singh Rihal to focus on the work that the Sikh community has been doing in Southfields, South London, near Wimbledon. Over 20 or more years, the Sikh Temple on Merton Road has become “a centre of excellence”, using the yardsticks that people in community development understand and value.

What has been the reason for the success of the Southfields Sikh Centre as a agency for local development? How has a place of religious worship found its way into the local community? What more would the centre managers like to achieve and what are the areas in which they need help? These questions apply to many new heritage community champions a term that I will be using to describe the work of dedicated leaders who have worked with very little to achieve so much.

Many are on the verge of major change and may need help in achieving their objectives. It is clear that the Government will be seeking new collaborations with the Third Sector. The new heritage champions are people and organisations which have ‘cut through the ice’ and created a sound asset base which needs further exploitation. How can Government work with new heritage organisations and help to create better returns on their efforts but at the same time to utilise the talent, asset base and capacity? A few early thoughts follow in the next post.

An organisation that has taken major strides in developing their programmes for community development is the Ramgarhia Sikh Temple, based in Upton Park, Newham. I will admit to an affiliation with the organisation but their action plans have led to a surge in new ideas that people in the community are starting to relate to. It is setting up the Centre@270 Trust, a new dedicated organisation to spearhead community action programmes by using £2 million worth of community assets which have now become available following the construction of a new Sikh Temple on Neville Road, E7. A case study is to follow following extensive discussions with past and present leadership. An interview will also follow with Trustees, comprising Sarup Singh Kalsi, Tarsem Singh Bhogal and Kewal Singh Chana.

Another project with extensive future benefit is the prospective launch of The Falcon Sports and Community Centre under the leadership of Ajit Singh Purewal and his team. Early stage planning issues have been taking up some time but the impact of community action in creating a major sports and community centre will benefit the entire community in the Stoke Poges Lane, an area of Slough, Berks.

Sukhjit Dhaliwal and Rajinder Sandhu bring many years of business, voluntary sector and local authority expertise to their plans to launch the Centre for Community Action Partnerships, to be based also in Slough. A work programme will make first advances in accessing Government funding to create employment and training outcomes. A second case study follows.