Michael Kosmas talks about his forthcoming Summit

Michael Kosmas

The UK has the 4th highest teenage pregnancy rate in the world. With most relationship role models for young people being in music and media, Michael Kosmas, a young entrepreneur has decided to host a Singles & Relationship Summit including an open discussion forum to answer the difficult questions on how to successfully live and thrive in single life and relationships. It's being held on January 30th at 6.30pm in London and Jonathan Bellamy decided to catch up with Michael to find out more.

Jonathan: Now Michael, you're a very busy man. You're only 23, but you've already founded your own community of interest company called Next Generation Project. Tell us a little bit about that first of all. What do you do?

Michael: Part of the company mainly works with young people who are disengaged and in youth prisons, and helping them re-engage into the community and also get some work ready skills so that they can get on in life.

Jonathan: What are the kinds of skills that you teach them and train them in?

Michael: What we would do we'd use creative art as an engagement, where they'd be using dance, drama and within the project what we would aim to do is to teach skills such as even English, Maths, and other work ready skills, such as communication, presentation skills; all embedded in creative based projects. We call them creative learning; it's about engaging with them with something that they're interested in at first; then embedding the learning skills that they need. Not everyone is used to learning the conventional ways. So you have an alternative for those who learn in a different way and to get them through and to get the skills that they need.

Jonathan: Now I understand you've already reached more than five thousand young people with some of these training skills that you offer. What's the kind of feedback you get from schools and youth centres?

Michael: I get very positive feedback because most of the young people, they've not learnt in this particular way before, because they're used to sitting down in a classroom; but with us, we could be out there shooting a film. Yet we are making sure that they get their English and their reading done at the same time in a very fun and interactive way. We have met some young people within the prison and they've told us they got released and they've come on to our projects outside and helped them engage in the community again. It's always a positive thing that spurs us on and gives us energy to continue, when we see such positive feedback and change that comes through the work that we do.

Jonathan: This weekend, you're hosting the Singles and Relationship Summit. Is it because of the work that you do with thousands of young people? Has that been part of the inspiration if you like, that you recognise a lot of young people battling with these kinds of issues?

Michael: Yes. I think my background or anyone's background shapes them in terms of how they see the world and how they approach situations. When it comes to the issue of a Singles and Relationship Summit, for me it's really coming from the perspective of looking that the average person spends at least eleven years in the educational system, learning about different subject matters, but not knowing it's really educating our people by relationships, whereby it's really one of the most important areas of our lives we need to know how to deal with. Then also most of the people out there are left to come up with some notions based on a drama series like Eastenders or a series that they watched; or something they heard in the barber shop. What we're trying to do is create a forum where people can really educate themselves; because when people fail to plan for marriage or for long term relationships, they're really preparing for failure.

Jonathan: What about your own experience in being single? Can you just share a little bit about your own getting to grips with the issue of sexual purity?

Michael: Yes. I think - first of all I think for myself as a young person growing up within the church, you do not necessarily find the forum to discuss this issue openly; whether you're facing a struggle of some sort. So I began to initiate by creating forums to help out other young people and say, you know what, I was in the very same position as you were; but there are a number of things that you can do to keep yourself pure when you're in God.

Jonathan: How significant do you think today's media culture is? You know media, music, videos all those kind of things, in terms of bombarding a perspective on your sexuality?

Michael: Yes, definitely. I think because sometimes when it comes to issue of sexual purity, most of the time the answers don't lie down in your soul; it's more in your eyes. What goes through your eyes now, would determine how you win the battle of sexual purity. Especially with the media that we have with the TV; it certainly doesn't make it easy. But nevertheless we still have to find ways whereby we try to eliminate most of these things from entering to our system, because especially for young men in particular. You know with these sexually charged images when they're viewing them at home something is created into the bloodstream, which then locks into your memory whatever stimulus is present at the time. That's why so many of the young people cannot say no and by continuing doing this you are feeding your sex drive. Then it's almost like you have a lot of people who have a sex drive which they can't control it and it has control of them. So the idea is that you have to try to start starving the sex drive so that you get back to the normal size whereby you do this by starving him of the sexually charged images that are coming through the media. Then you get to a place whereby you have more control.

Jonathan: That's fascinating. I've never heard that understanding of sexual drive. Tell us about peer pressure then. How significant is peer pressure?