Phoenix Education Centre was founded by Emma Shaw to tackle educational underachievement in the PUL community
A woman from East Belfast is using her own experience to help young people in the area flourish and achieve academically.
That led to her founding Phoenix Education Centre on the Woodstock Road three years ago. The community organisation focuses on providing education and training opportunities to young people in the area. "My dissertation was on educational disadvantage. Throughout uni, I was always hearing that working class Protestants aren't interested in education from the academics. I didn't agree with that, it wasn't my experience on the ground."
"Their parents were telling them to get a job as they were passing on what they had been told. So, it's not that the parents didn't want the best for their child, it's that they didn't know what that entailed. The reality is they didn't have the knowledge or the expertise or experience to signpost them for what might have been suited to them."
"I have worked with six young men who have all fainted and collapsed in schools because of spice that they're vaping at school, which is very concerning. "If you're going to work with young people, you have to understand where they're coming from. They often need mentors and safe people in their lives they can reach out to."
East Belfast BBC Tesco West Belfast
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