Masood Ajaib grew up in the Pakistani community within Birmingham and has been involved with community work for 5 years working to help provide to young people opportunities and experiences they wouldn’t necessarily otherwise have. Now heading the Comm:pact group based in the East of Birmingham Masood is aiming to expand the work of Comm:pact with greater coordination between projects and aiming to make them sustainable, and using the money made to fund new projects.

Masood’s first main work was with football teams within the community with around 100 young people taking part in various age groups in 5 a side football. This work quickly grew and expanded within the Washwood heath youth and community network expanding taking in more teams and growing into other sports with football, futsal (5 a side football with a smaller ball), wrestling, boxing and volleyball.

As Masood’s work and vision expanded it became necessary for the group to change its structure to work more effectively and be eligible for more funding and to be able to carry out larger projects. The group aimed to make Comm:pact as self sustainable as possible and to channel funds generated into new projects. The football team began generating revenue by taking coaching sessions and by going into schools taking P.E lessons and running after school clubs. The internet Café as well as being a place for people to come and use the internet generating revenue as with the drinks sold, is also used to give people work experience to give people help with their C.V’s to help them into work. This improved structure brought new opportunities for wider funding from the council and the EU as they received funding for getting people into work and the project has mentored over 20 people back into the workplace. Comm:pact having diversified away from sport aims to offer local people what they want in a manner that is sensitive to their needs and culture. A homework club was set up to give children a place, facilities and guidance to do their work. A women’s group called Amina has started forging links with the NHS PCT in the area helping women with various health issues including post natal depression. A magazine university guide has also bee created offering guidance and creating advertising revenue. Masood is also now working on opening a women’s hair salon offering training to local people and a place where women from the local Pakistani community can feel comfortable going, with revenue from this going to fund other projects under the Comm:pact umbrella. The internet café Ecaf was opened following funding gained from the youth capital fund and Community chest helped raise £20000. This plus fund's from Masood and other group members help to gain a lease and equipment for the café. However the whole process was helped by other volunteers from the community contributing time and money or carrying out work cheaply for the group such as building computers or carpentry making the furniture.

Comm:pact wanted to engage those “the community found hard to reach” this included a group of street races who used a local stretch of road for street racing. Comm:pact then helped them to organise a race day at Donnington park as they don’t want to break the law just need to be given opportunities to do what they want. Masood found they weren’t hard to reach just that the facilities they wanted were hard to access for them, but that it was important for them to be involved and feel ownership of the event. “our social capital is our young people…we need to engage them now rather than when they’re older and it is too late”.

Turning the work into a coherent coordinated group was a difficult task not knowing how to go about forming a holding company with a strong constitution, forming committees and complying with health and safety legislation etc. but Masood received strong support from Cllr Ansar Khan putting them in contact with a similar organisation and explaining what needed to be done and how to go about it offering support along the way. These things were originally a mystery to Masood and the others at Comm:pact but now Masood advocates getting to know these processes’ and getting to know the decision makers in order to make them work to your advantage. Getting to know who does what and working to have a positive influence on committee’s etc. has really paid dividends for Comm:pact and made their work much easier. Along with a more defined structure it was vital to evaluate the success of projects so evaluation reports were commissioned for every project with targets laid out and on completion the project would be evaluated on these criteria.
Masood gave up a lot to make Comm:pact the success it is today sacrificing his previous careers in accountancy, fashion and construction giving up lots of time and money to invest in the organisation but he knows the job satisfaction is much greater now. “When someone you helped get back into work comes back in and you get feedback from the people you have helped you get a job satisfaction you just don’t in other jobs”. The organisation has had many successes with gaining links with the England Futsal team having players represent England at Futsal and play internationally for Pakistan, community events have given local youth the chance to perform in front of thousands increasing their confidence. It is the effect the organisation has on young people that make it a passion for Masood and well worth the time, money and effort his has invested. Comm:pact are now looking to broaden their horizons and provide resources in the form of a new leisure centre on the Hodge Hill Hall sight aiming to deliver sports services to the community at a profit. The motivation of wanting “the community you live in to be as good as any other” has driven on the team and Massod offers these tips to others with similar goals
• Start small to get big.
• Get to know processes’: how to aply for funding, work with council etc.
• Get involved in local decision making.
• Need a team of doers that have trust and get on. A strong team of volunteers is vital.
• Network: engage with decision makers. Learn to work with other bodies to make the most of resources