On Saturday 15th September 50 young people gathered in Stratford, East London for the first ever Let us Learn Youth Summit. With the slogan “We're Here. We Stand. WE BELONG”, the Youth Summit was held to drive forward the process of building a community of young activists committed to working for a society where young migrants are able to contribute to their full potential. The summit aimed to give the young people who participated the opportunity to share their experiences, gain knowledge, improve their skills and widen their network.
Just like that, they took her. No care in the world that she had a son.
Dajay Brown on his reality with immigration law enforcement
Opening with a talk by the actor Dajay Brown, who shared his personal experience of the realities of immigration enforcement, the summit also featured performances from the spoken word artists Emmanuel Speaks and Nego True. Participants took part in workshops focusing on issues including movement building, status and rights, public speaking and climbing the educational ladder. They also organised an action to highlight the issue of increases to NHS surcharges, which presents many young migrants with a “double tax” and a barrier to access to crucial services.
Reflecting on the Youth Summit, Let us Learn Project Co-lead Dami Makinde said: “Our first ever Youth Summit was all I could ask for and more. The day was well organised and moved swiftly, with Dajay Brown’s performance blowing everyone away - I had tears in my eyes! Nego True and Emmanuel Speaks always know how to work a crowd and made everyone present experience all kinds of emotions with their incredible performances. Events like this are essential to the incredible movement that we are building.”