a leap of faith what if I fall oh but
what if I fly those words resonated with
me for weeks on end as I consider taking
my biggest leap of faith now I want you
to take 15 seconds out of your time 15
seconds to think about a time where
you've had to take your biggest or
smallest leap of faith
now as you think about that I'm sure
you'll agree with me that a leap of
faith always comes with a fear at a big
element of fear and oftentimes that's a
fear of the unknown a fear of something
that is yet to take place hasn't
happened yet and for me that was one of
the hardest decisions I was fighting
with now I'll get back to what that leap
of faith was shortly but firstly I'd
like to tell you a bit about my journey
and what's led me to really celebrate
community unity and us now if I want to
take it right back to my childhood at
the age of 14 I was that typical
teenager at home in the school holidays
playing on his computer
mum working as a full-time nurse and
I've got nothing else to do but
something pops up in my brain and I
thought to myself do you know what I
want to do something a bit more
fulfilling so as I got the back door key
and headed out into the back garden I
went into the garden shed and I reach
for the muck bucket a big sponge and the
garden hose now I found an old cardboard
box and I decided to write on it car
wash free pound 50 now lo and behold I
ended up on a main road which is where
we lived so you can imagine 14-year old
me stand-in there with these cars
zooming past now it was after a few cars
had went past that I started to get a
bit of interest and one car turned up
then another now let's go forward a bit
a few hours
mum's about to turn up from work a drive
is full of five different cars mum can't
get on her drive now mum could have been
super mad at me and said excuse me or in
a Caribbean accent I wanna seeee
but she decided to celebrate what I was
doing community now at 14 that was
something that I found fun now the
picture you see before you is me at 16
setting up my own street dance class
twenty two pounds fifty at Kingston
delicious Center and slowly but surely I
started to realize now that I'm actually
celebrating community as these parents
turned up to drop their children off in
my care I realized that I had some
responsibility to take on now my journey
has taught me so many lessons in life
and I'm still going and I'm still
learning but one thing I've learned from
my childhood is if you have a dream
chasing if you have a leap of faith to
take and you have a decision to make
take it yes what if you fall but what if
you fly now taking the leap can be the
most hardest thing to do and if I was to
take you back now into my journey into
education because this is what I
actually do for a living I work in
education now I remember my first ever
time that I was employed in a school and
I was employed as a one-to-one mentor to
work with a young boy who was dealing
with some very serious issues at home
and in school and as I'm knocked on the
door in the uf3
I said mister I'm here to work with a
young boy and he's one-to-one she said
he's over there so as I looked across
the classroom I couldn't see this boy in
the direction that she was pointing in
and some of the children who was sitting
on one of the tables went so as I looked
under the table this young boy was
sitting there with his face in his hands
so I simply walked over and I start
under the table with this young boy I
said to him how are you no response my
name is Anthony it's really nice to meet
you
are you okay
no answer but I noticed on his trainers
that he was wearing on the feet of his
trainers he had a picture of a BMX BMX
bike
and I've just said to him do you like
BMX ease and slowly I saw a few eyes
peek behind those hands
I love BMX ease do you know what when I
was younger I used to have a be a mix
and I remember the stuff pegs on the
back of the wheels and I used to be able
to give my friends a back II he removed
his hands from his face this young boy
turned out to be one of my best friends
he's now 19 years old and I still keep
in touch with him up to this day but
what that taught me is that honing in on
the interests of people and actually
taking a real interest in people rather
than ignoring the important things is
something that can actually build a
relationship a long-lasting relationship
with somebody not only can it build
relationships but it can also break down
barriers this young boy suffered with
very low self-esteem he didn't believe
in himself he hadn't no friends
now over the years of working at that
school I started to see this young boy
interact with people he made friends in
his later years he smiled and his
parents could see that and to see the
joy in their faces inspired me even more
this is where I knew my place was in
education to inspire you see on the
picture this is me at my first ever
school that I introduced when I set my
own organization a called standing
ovation now standing ovation worked with
a number of schools across the UK and
what really catches my attention is each
school I go into I see different faces I
see different skin colors I hear about
different cultures I hear about
different religions and what really
sticks with me is the fact that children
they don't see color children don't see
through color they see a face and they
accept it and I thought to myself why
can't we all be like that because if the
world could be like that and if we all
as individuals could practice
that this world would be such an amazing
place still about one on my journey
through to education supporting
communities now some of the things that
I've realized through my profession and
inspiring people through creative arts
is some of the areas that we can really
hone in on well-being and health okay a
positive view of self
now even as adults we've suffered with
low self-esteem but how important is it
to have a positive view of yourself and
on Monday morning when you wake up and
that alarm bell goes off and the snooze
button gets hit maybe 10 times I'm sure
I've done it about 10 times and it's
that feeling of getting out of bed but
have a positive view of yourself in the
morning put some music on sing dance try
your best to feel good in yourself
development and progress creative
learning and self-expression the joy on
my face when I visit different schools
that we work with and I see our choirs
standing there and the young boy or the
young girl that I know to be the one
who's very low in confidence is at the
front they're showing hand gestures
they're smiling absolutely amazing it's
you can't put a price on something like
that
community engagement feeling positive
about being around others seeing you all
here today has made me smile I don't
know every single one of you here but
one thing I know that we have in common
is we're all here to support everybody
here is here to support one another very
interesting to see that sometimes when
I'm doing an incident what I call an
inspiration assembly I sometimes call
the teachers up because as adults like I
said before we struggle we have leaps of
faith that we have not yet took on and
to see the kids faces when they actually
see an adult their teacher who they look
up to leading by example
and taking an opportunity to show those
children that anything is possible
I've learnt is an amazing thing too so
whatever we do and it doesn't matter the
sets of work that you work in it doesn't
matter what kind of education you're
studying at the moment just do your best
and that's all you can ask of yourself
sometimes the person who can stop you
from moving forward the only person that
can stop you from moving forward and
progressing is yourself and I realized
that hence why I decided I was going to
take that leap of faith and the and the
fault of falling was always a
possibility but even now I'm four years
into my organization and still the fault
of falling is always there but I let the
fort of flying over riding have a look
at this potential the amount of
potential that you tap into determines
the amount of action that you are going
to take the amount of action you take
discernment determines the results that
you're going to get the results you get
determine the belief in yourself and
finally the amount of belief you have
determines the amount of potential you
can tap into it all starts here have
that self belief recognize your
potential now very click quickly I just
like everybody just to hold your hands
out for a moment
everybody now everybody has their own
individual part of treasure your own
individual part of treasure now if I was
to ask you what is here what do you see
when you look into your part of treasure
you might say to me when I think it's
mark its my hands or just see the palm
of my hands but I want you to look
deeper now in the palm of your hands
holds the strong values that you have
taken on through out your life the
values that you've got to celebrate and
to show other people what
you are made of and how you can inspire
them that might be empathy a lot of
people are empathetic they put their
selves in other people's shoes and they
care for them they can sense it have a
sixth sense that somebody is sad it
could be love I've met so many people
who've just got an exuberant amount of
love to give and spread and you probably
know somebody like that kindness you
might be that person that's happy to
give your half of you snicker bar away
and I love Snickers so you know that
would be tough for me okay but I want
you to really look deep into your part
of treasure and don't forget that every
time you doubting yourself in the
morning or whenever whatever time of day
nighttime look into your part of
treasure and remind yourself of the
amazing person that you are
diversity is finest I mentioned going
into the schools and seeing different
faces different skin colors different
cultures and the joy I get from teaching
these children and to and to really
celebrate community because what we're
essentially doing when we're teaching
these children is we're actually
teaching them to become leaders young
leaders who are going to grow up to be
standing here maybe on the stage like
this talking to an audience like you
celebrate diversity I always tell the
children that I work with do you speak
to your friends and ask them about your
fam about their family in their culture
and they say no sir I don't why would I
do that and I say well you need to find
out about different cultures so you can
understand about another culture another
religion and they get it so you watch
them in the playground and they start to
talk and interact with each other and
this is where relationships are built
community unity us when is the last time
that you took a moment out to celebrate
what you are doing
big or small small achievements count to
celebrate it
I was very guilty of that myself and
having gone two years into the project
somebody said Anthony have you taken
some time out to actually look at what
you've achieved and how many schools
you've reached and and how many children
in all of these assemblies you've you've
inspired you and your team and I said
well you need to sit down and just take
a moment and think and it's only then
when I did that I realized how much I
had accomplished I started to celebrate
it don't ever doubt your ability don't
ever doubt your ability to inspire and
to create change often times you've
probably not even realized that you're
actually doing it it's always the other
people who realise it but take some time
to celebrate what you are doing thank
you
[Applause]