Anisa Adan, 22, grew up in Barnet and attended school in Edgware. She has been volunteering for Nutmeg since 2008 by assisting in events organisation, volunteer recruitment and awareness raising. She has been recognised and awarded for her continued contribution and commitment to our work. This is her story:
“Before I started volunteering at Nutmeg I was a quiet and sometimes unsociable person. I cared about local issues and would talk about them with other people, we’d even make plans to do something about the local issues we cared about but we just didn’t know how to approach them. I sometimes felt like I didn’t really have a voice
I first heard about Nutmeg through school and decided to attend an Everyone Together event. At the event I found that Nutmeg were approaching the issues I cared about and were talking about the things I believed in, and I thought “Hey.. I can get involved with this!” and so from then on I started to help Nutmeg out.
I got involved with organising Everyone Together events (E2G). It was exciting to go from being the person watching the show, to being the person running the show. The events I have worked on have targeted the local issues that I care about.
By getting young people together to showcase their talents and skills you’re keeping them busy and giving them a reason to get off the streets. By getting the young people together in this way we are able to give advice and information on the issues affecting them. For example, giving young people advice on how to deal with situations such as knife crime or gang violence.
There are also a lot of young people out there who feel like they don’t have a voice. The Nutmeg events have given these young people the space and the opportunity to voice their opinions and start to feel that someone is hearing them.
Seeing the impact of these events has had on the community and the young people involved has made me feel good about myself – to think I was actually there helping to make the change! I used to feel like everything was in someone else’s hands but now I feel stronger as a person.
The highlight of my time with Nutmeg was getting my first award from them. It felt good to be recognised but also to hear from Nutmeg the results the work I had been a part of had on the community. My other highlight is the fact that Nutmeg is still standing, carrying on strong and making more changes!”
