Slough has a rich and diverse multi-cultural and multi-ethnic community. Leaving aside London, Slough can claim to be the most diverse place in England. If you were to pick any two people at random from its population of 120,000, there would be a 62% chance that they would be from different ethnic backgrounds (CRE).

During 1996-1997 serious violence took place between young people from the Asian community. Over a period of two years at the height of the tensions there were some serious incidents of racial violence. This conflict received national media attention, portraying a negative image of young Asian people in Slough and in turn this had an impact on the rest of the community.

The media attention focusing on the tensions in Slough was best highlighted in a documentary entitled 'The Peacemaker.' This was aired on Channel 4 on the 30th of March 1998. The documentary sought to illustrate the tensions between young Asian people in Slough. A renowned international facilitator, Dr. Dudley Weeks was invited by Channel 4 to be the focus of the documentary. His experience and unique methods of conflict resolution enabled him to work with groups of young people who had been involved in the violence. His experiences in Slough led him to recommend the creation of a conflict resolution group, led by young people for young people. This resulted in the formation of the Peer Training Team.

A project brief was drafted recommending that 10-15 young Asian people from the Sikh, Hindu and Muslim communities be part of a peer education project. This required the young people taking part in a three-day intensive course run by Dr Weeks. This course enabled the participants to take their newly acquired skills out into the community. These individuals became the first conflict resolution peer training team and so the project was born.

Aik Saath has since developed greatly. The peer training team is made up of young people from a wide variety of backgrounds and train young people from an equally diverse community. The project is now set up as an independent charity funded by a variety of external funders and is continuing to build on its aims and extending its work to make a continuing difference to the lives of young people in Slough, its surrounding areas and more recently, even further away.

Over one hundred young people have been part of the team, training their peers in conflict resolution and anti-racism skills, since 1998. The team trains over one thousand other young people every year.