'My experience at the multiple heritage meeting was very positive. I was rather shy at first but was warmly greeted by very enthusiastic staff, then as I was taken through into a room with a smaller group. I found that even though I thought I was the only one that felt a certain way about something, as the group got talking I found out that everyone felt the same and I gained a great confidence from this. Then Bradley gave us a heartwarming speech about one of his own experiences and I felt I could really adapt this to one of my own personal experiences and I found that I could really relate to what he was saying.'

'We were also given a quiz about black history and this was a real eye opener as I thought I knew a lot about my history but my results didn't reflect this. I found this very positive as I now know that I need to do some research of my own on this subject and learn more about my heritage. Then we had to set goals for our own school and I found this helpful as I know that if there are changes, I can take great pride in knowing that I helped make those changes.' Louis Beckford .

'I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and learned plenty of new things, a lot of them surprising me. The day was very well planned out, and the setting was wonderful and impressive. There was even a prayer room, a facility which I was surprised to find. The food was great, as were the activities. I found discovering other people's views immensely interesting and I loved sharing my opinions with different individuals. This event has definitively motivated me, and made me think about how we could help mixed-race people with issues, and raising their self-confidence. Thanks to this, I now want to become an active member of the community, standing up and speaking out for my brothers and sisters out there.' Amina Guiock

'At first, I'll be honest with you, I only wanted to go to the 'Leicester Multiple Heritage Conference For Youths' if my friends were going. Soon after I walked through the doors of the Peepul Center's Hall my eyes lit up as I saw so many of my other mixed race friends from other schools and from then on I knew I was going to have a good day. We were quickly put into non-friendship groups and were sent to our morning workshop. I thought not being in friendship groups was a plus as you got to meet new future friends and being able to talk about past experiences without looking at your friends seeing if they are laughing at you or not. When we arrived there we had a little ice-breaker, telling jokes and getting to know our group members names.'

'Here I started to talk about my life experiences as a mixed raced youth and was given intellectual answers from the other teenagers in my group. It may sound silly but my fatal flaw of sensitivity was broken, and I took the answers given straight to the heart. We had dinner after that session, and the fish, the cooks made in a Caribbean style, for me was mouth watering. The food was a definite plus and how it was cooked in an Afro-Caribbean recipe added to the feeling of that we was respected to having a black side of us and it being brought to the table (literally). After that we went to our afternoon workshop, here I looked at mixed race celebrities, and had a guessing game for various celebrities racial background. This workshop went really well and included loads of laughter and smiles.'

'After this some students had a chance to have a video recording of their thoughts of the day. I thought there was no point in not going as I have nothing to loose. This gave me a chance to tell people my thoughts of the day and get opinions heard. After this the day was nearly done, from there on you could hear clapping from everyone, giving praise towards Bradley, Denise and the helpful facilitators. And Bradley telling some jokes and words of wisdom to the crowd got little laughter but a lot of open ears eager to hear what he had to say.' Maclane James

These statements were first submitted as part of the e-conference mixedness and mixing 4-6 September 2007.

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