Apsana Khatun

A diverse, thriving community

Having worked in Lozells for almost 15 years, Apsana Khatun has seen its highs and lows as a youth worker in one of the most deprived wards in Birmingham.

Her first interaction with the area came in the early 2000s whilst she was at University. She worked for the Bangladeshi Youth Forum (BYF) as a youth worker which she was introduced to after doing some mentoring work for Pioneers, “I started working in the area as a youth worker… [for] an organisation called Bangladeshi Youth Forum which was set up in the 90s but I came in 2000 through pioneers actually, [after doing] some mentoring work”.

5 years into her job as a youth worker, the 2005 Birmingham riots took place mainly in Handsworth and Lozells as a result of tensions between different cultural communities. Apsana recalls the difficulties this caused in Lozells, “The ones that happened in the 80s, I was far too young for that, I heard the stories afterwards. It was actually really upsetting because I was quite young myself… and working as a youth worker, you came across all these bullish boys and you didn’t know how to deal with it.”. Her line of work at the time involved dealing with teenagers in one of the poorest areas in Birmingham to which she described as being “challenging”. She goes on to explain how many dropped out of her programme and sometimes fell into the prison system. To summarise, she called it a “really really challenging and difficult time”.

Despite the tough nature of the riots, the aftermath brought new challenges to the community in Lozells. Apsana recalls how community leads came together to try and interact with the younger generations of Lozells, “After the riots, it was just a matter of coming together. There was a lot of meetings, a lot of interaction, especially with the young people, especially with the youths of the area.”. She also identified the work of religious institutions such as Mosques and Churches as being important to this process. Although Apsana left the area in 2013, she could see that “a lot of the young people were off the streets” hence there hasn’t been a significant riot for 11 years.

Covid-19 was a completely new and unexpected obstacle for Lozells which the community has never experienced before. Apsana relates back to the first lockdown in March of 2020 where she says that there was a lot of fear within the neighbourhood however nowadays it has become normalised much like cancer and pneumonia.

Reflecting on the changes in the Lozells and Handsworth area, Apsana believes that Lozells has “come a long way” in the sense that businesses are thriving within the area. She admits that the two main issues currently facing Lozells are fly-tipping and Anti-Social behaviour however when asked to describe in a sentence the resilience of the community, she states, “It’s a diverse, thriving community but it’s still a lot to do for improvement”.