In the light of the official report on racial equality released by the UK Government on 31st March 2021, we at Voyage uphold our commitment to challenging the institutional racism experienced by the young people with whom we work. We wish to emphasise the fact that these experiences are at the hands of police officers, teachers, and employers as youngsters progress through adult life and the world of work. We believe that these experiences result in both individual and collective traumas that work to negatively impact our society as a whole. Therefore, as citizens, we all have a duty to challenge and stop racial discrimination wherever it may occur.

We contend that racism is a public health crisis in London, and are thus concerned about its deleterious impact upon the lives of members of racialised communities within the UK. As such we will continue to seek access to a range of appropriate services and support across all sectors, structures and systems—including education, health, housing and employment—that continue to fail our young people.

We will continue to engage with statutory and non-statutory organisations; parents; teachers and other educators; healthcare professionals; children and young people; multidisciplinary teams of professionals; survivors, and community advocates from all backgrounds in order to challenge racist myths. We will commit to a contribution to wider public education around the impact of institutional racism upon individual  lives; many of which are so often minimised, forgotten or ignored.

In this aim, we invite the UK Government to recognise and acknowledge the seriousness of the impact of racism and its pernicious and detrimental impact on our young, their families and our communities.

We also appeal to all Londoners to reflect upon the impact of the reality of their own experiences, and those of their wider communities, and to come together to create a demonstrably fairer and more resilient society able to resist all manifestations of racism by adoption of robust anti-racist policies, principles and political practices that that speak to our common humanity.