Alum Rock taught me almost everything I know about community, family, faith and graft. This is the place that made me.
I was born and raised in Alum Rock. My earliest memories are of corner shops, school runs, busy kitchens, family weddings, prayers at the mosque and football in the street. It was working-class, multicultural, noisy, warm and proud.
We did not have much, but we had each other. Neighbours looked out for neighbours. Older men kept an eye on younger ones. Mothers ran the show. Faith was woven into ordinary life. The values I carry now — service, responsibility, respect, hard work — were learned on those streets long before any book taught them to me.
Alum Rock is sometimes written about in the press for the wrong reasons. The Alum Rock I know is a place of entrepreneurs, of young people striving to do better than their parents, of families that have built a life here over generations. That is the Alum Rock I will always fight for.