We’re standing in MAPA, based in West Bowling. It’s our community, it’s our family, it’s where we come for our support if we need it. It’s an amazing place. There’s so much stuff going on at MAPA. We help people that are in need, we do food parcels, we have mental health groups going on, youth sessions going on – we help the disadvantaged when they need someone.

It’s not just about having physical items here, it’s having that shoulder or ear, just being there and being supportive, just to keep our community going. We are a village and we all are here. It takes a village to raise a family and that is exactly what we are.

I originally grew up in the area. I went to the school which is around the back from MAPA. So I used to come to MAPA as a youth, and being able to come back as a grown adult, and be able to bring my children to this venue is absolutely amazing. It’s got a bit of history, this place. We actually started off in a little wooden hut in 1971.

MAPA actually represents Macmillan Adventure Playground Association, that’s why we started off because there was nowhere for the young people to play, and we’ve just evolved since then. So Newby Square, it was a housing estate, and that’s where our roots came from, our black community, and we was a very tight-knit community. Anyone who was brought up on Newby Square knows everyone who’s from Newby Square. So it’s nice to see the generations throughout the years come back and reminisce about that.

We’ve got an open door policy. Everyone is welcome, no one’s turned away. We’ve had quite a few different communities coming in and going out. We’ve had quite a few people who, starting off as young people, with nowhere to go, and then they’ve actually ended up becoming either famous footballers and magicians. The famous magician is our Dynamo. He was one of the young people who accessed MAPA as a youth and is now worldwide. If they didn’t have MAPA to start off with, they wouldn’t be where they are today.

We are in Newby Square, just off Manchester Road. In a lovely little building, which is full of surprises.

We have youth centre work going on here. We have older male sessions and some female sessions coming up, lots of arts and crafts and trips for children who haven’t otherwise had the opportunities to go on trips and residentials. So we do a lot of that stuff here.

My daughter’s involved in them things and that’s how I got to know about MAPA. They do a lot of community work with people like myself and others.

I used to come here as a young person. We’d record music, play pool, that sort of thing. So it was a hub for us when we lived and hung around in West Bowling, a place to come to get off the streets, speak and raise concerns with our youth workers, about some of the challenges that we had as young people growing up with the police, you know, stop and search. So we always had that sort of safety net here, where we could come and talk to our youth workers. So it’s been a part of me since I was a young lad, really. So to be able to come back here years later and be part of the trustee board, it’s really motivating for me.

There’s a couple of youth groups that it does every week. The make-up of West Bowling’s changed slightly in terms of the communities. Newby Square was demolished and then it started to change, and the black community has spread out across the District.

In terms of the members and people that come into MAPA, at its core it’s still a black organisation, but it’s got people from the Eastern European community, the Roma community, that now attend as West Bowling starts to welcome some of them people into the area. It’s just ever evolving and growing.

People like Fabian Delph (a professional football player who has played for Leeds United, Man City, Aston Villa and England) and Dynamo (the magician) who used to attend, they’re all part of the MAPA family. It was a place of safety and allowed them to be creative as well.

People got such a strong connection with MAPA. Like Mikey Roots, who’s on the mural outside. He inspired the next generation that was up and coming. He was a person you would go to and talk. He had his own cafe. You’d go down and grab a patty and have a chat, and he’d give you some words of wisdom, so a lot of people went to Mikey for guidance and support. He was the first guy to set up the Rasta Scouts, you know, with the red, gold and green necktie. So he was always challenging the norm, I think, for the black community. He set up the Scouts, so in a way he was challenging the status quo, but he was kind of establishment and not establishment. You know, you have to work with institutions and understand how they work and work with them to help them understand how our community works. And then you end up with a better outcome than not being involved with them. And he definitely inspired my generation, and we’re still inspired by him.

Everyone’s got a different story. It’s personal, you know, MAPA. I’m 52. I used to come here as a kid. Late 70s, early 80s. And I remember it because we had nothing in those days. I used to live up the road. To come down here was our little safe haven.

So I came here, and I think it was the first time I went on a trip to North Yorkshire, Nidderdale, with some of the workers. To this day, I remember it clearly. We never travelled outside of our area, but to go to North Yorkshire as kids, the difference it made!

I love the fact that I’ve come back now, and to be asked to be the Chair of it, it’s very humbling to a degree, seeing what difference you can make, like with a younger generation. We took a group out last weekend to a residential. I know half of them have never been away, so those kids are like me back in the 80s. Whether they see me again, or not, it doesn’t matter. That’s ingrained in their brains now, that’s in their memory banks forever. We went to Buckden House, in Yorkshire Dales, and again, some of these kids have never been outside this area. We took them caving up in the Dales and, first and foremost, taking the phones off them, saying “Look around you!” Believe it or not, we took them stargazing, and they were amazed. They’ve never ever done it, and again, hopefully that’s in their memory, so when they get older, they’ll associate that with MAPA. It’s a selfless task, I love it. You make your memories with these kids, just doing stuff.