Culture Fusion - Bradford
Partnership and co-locations of service
 One of the challenges many communities face is overcoming deeply entrenched territorial and racial divides. At the aptly named Culture Fusion, in Bradford, young people are leading the charge in overcoming this challenge in their community. Jenny Bass, Bradford Council Youth Participation Worker, points out that there are lots of young people that are proud of the area's diversity and who want to celebrate it rather than perpetuate the tensions and divides that exist. So what does it take to create a myplace centre that provides a place for these young people to tackle these challenges, get the services they need, and of course, have fun?
Landmark Architecture
For Culture Fusion the building itself - a refurbishment and extension of an historic mill - provides a visual focal point for a new era of cooperation and understanding. The exterior will have some innovative features designed to make the building highly noticable both to young people who will use it, and to the general public. The unique rooftop attraction piece is intended to set the building apart, and, combined with a publicly visible cafe, will showcase to passersby the potential of such a diverse city. The interior of the building is also being designed to meet the needs of a diverse clientele, taking into account such considerations as avoiding small blind corridors where bullying might take place.
 Outreach
The key to inclusion, of course, is getting young people from as many backgrounds as possible involved in Culture Fusion. To do this, staff and the young people they work with are hitting the streets. Staff members have visited dozens of local organisations that work with children and young people to include them in consultation and to raise awareness of the centre and its ethos. They got young people in reparation involved in advising on how to make the building a safe place to be, spoke to design students from a local school about some of the aspects of the building, consulted young disabled people on how to make the centre welcoming and accessible to them, and integrated presentations on the new centre into existing YMCA programmes.
  Groups of young people have also been out and about getting other young people's opinions and spreading the word about Culture Fusion. A diverse group created the Roadshow in the summer of 2009 - taking brochures, pictures of the building plans and questionnaires to various locations around the city and collecting feedback from young people about what they want from the new centre.They've gone on local radio to
 discuss Culture Fusion and a Facebook group has been created to keep young people and partner organisations up to date on the project. A well-used drop-in area provides the opportunity for the community to see first hand what the centre will be like. A core group of young people from diverse backgrounds, called Culture Fusion Advisors, leads the youth involvement element of the project. These young people are from backgrounds that in the past have led to conflict with one another. But at Culture Fusion, the ethos and vision of the project are clear, and any conflicts are resolved right from the start. "Any issues that do occur are dealt with there and then," says Amy. "Through discussion, an understanding, if not an agreement, is reached."
Wide-ranging engagement
However, making sure people know about the centre isn't enough for Culture Fusion. They want to ensure that young people who might be reluctant to get involved in the centre do get involved. To this end, they are working in partnership with organisations that already serve groups of youth that are traditionally marginalised, such as GLBT youth, disabled youth, care leavers, and alternative learners at the existing YMCA facilities. By working with these organisations to include these marginalised young people in planning consultations, Culture Fusion has been able to include the opinions of a wide range of young people in their planning. As a result, the services and facilities will naturally appeal to a wide range of users, truly making it a place for everyone. And these consultations are not just one-off events. Young people from different groups and organisations are being constantly updated and consulted as the project progresses.
People involved with Culture Fusion are proud of the work they've done to involve lots of young people in the centre, and plan to continue to update and adapt the project according to the input of the full range of the area's young people. As Bradford YMCA Youth Worker Amy Wilson says, "It is hard to describe the ‘vibe' that the Culture Fusion Advisors give off. One quote we heard was that 'Culture Fusion is already happening.' This means that young people are coming together from different backgrounds and different interests even before the building work has started!"
Find out more on Cuture Fusion's Project Page
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Resources 
Culture Fusion Bradford Case Study (
