By Community Correspondent Anjali Parshotam

The youth of West London often feel they face a constant onslaught of bad press- now some, like Hounslow teenager Sean Vaghela, are starting to fight back. Sean, aged 18, is just one of the group of teenagers involved in the project MYSI (My Social Innovation) , a project that intends to help teenagers give back to their communities.

MYSI offers teenagers between the ages of 13 to 21, the opportunity to attend professional training that assists them with initiating their own community-based projects. It is an organisation that aims to provide people with new experiences that can shape their futures and help them to gain new skills such as teamwork and communication.

One of the new recruits to the project, Sean Vaghela , has created and set up his own business that offers a language service to inhabitants of the borough. Every week, he gives up his free time towards teaching English to those who fail to speak it or speak English as a second language. He informed me that, after hours of trawling through internet sites about new volunteering schemes, “the MYSI volunteering organisation caught my eye and got me interested.”

According to their website, MYSI aim to teach participants skills that you “won’t learn in school like Time Management, Presentation Skills, Communications and Project Planning”. The skills that participants learn through intensive training, allows them to inhabit an “entrepreneurial spirit” by achieving a “Can do attitude” that will boost their confidence in order to successfully run a youth led project.

Sean has made both friends and family proud through the project and more importantly, found a greater confidence in himself. He added, “MYSI has given me a better understanding about businesses and what paths I need to follow in order to fulfil my dream of setting up a business of my own.” The experiences he has encountered have demonstrated his abilities in serving the community and making a positive contribution to the borough- something that is inspirational for all. “I feel very happy that I am doing this project and it gives me great pride in knowing that I am doing something good,” he proclaimed.

So what is the next step? After speaking with Sean, he has challenged other teenagers in the borough to follow his footsteps and get involved in community projects. If you would like to take part or are interested about the MYSI scheme, please visit www.mysi.org.uk/default.aspx for more information.