housing organisation

Thenue Housing Association

 

 

 

 

 

Website

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summary of project

The Barriers project created using digital technologies the designs for six barriers made for the purpose of sectioning off areas of outdoor space during community events.  The project ran during the summer of 2014.

The project was aimed at supporting children and young people aged 5 to 16  to engage in both digital technology and their local community.  The project ran for 5 weeks during school holidays, with initial workshops focussed on the concept of community and its meaning to young people, with subsequent sessions involving the young people drawing, painting and colouring designs for use on printed barriers, subsequently transferring their designs to digital format with support from the Digital Inclusion Worker.  The children and young people who participated used information technology for research, scanning designs and creating a PowerPoint presentation to support the project's launch. The project was also supported by volunteers from the Calton Heritage and Learning Centre.

who is it aimed at?

Local children and young people

how is it funded?

The Calton Heritage and Learning Centre obtained the funding required to produce the barriers as part of the Commonwealth Games Legacy programme.

housing organisation resources provided

Time of Digital Inclusion Worker, laptops, printers

what partners are involved?

Calton Heritage and Learning Centre and its volunteers

challenges

Whilst the number of young people attending was stable, we found individual attendance could be variable, as the initiative took place in the summer holidays and so there was range of other summer activities which the young people also attended, as well as going on family holidays. This meant individual activities could not stretch out over a number of weeks as the participants would not necessarily be attending every session.

The range of ages of the young people was greater than originally intended, and the group was largely younger than intended as well. This required a change the approach of the delivery of the sessions to include more hands-on activities which could keep younger participants engaged.

Because the participants were younger than originally intended, most of the more technical aspects of the initiative (such as editing the design in Photoshop) fell to the Digital Inclusion worker, which in turn meant the project was more time consuming to deliver.

lessons learned

Sessions spread over a longer time period would allow for participants' absences during family holidays etc.

A more specific or narrow recruitment drive (resulting in older participants, and also a narrower age range overall) would have been easier to manage both in terms of the activities selected and also in terms of the young people engaging in more of the technical design aspects.

contacts

Dawn McManus, Community Engagement Officer dawn.mcmanus@thenuehousing.co.uk

Shay Anderson, Digital Inclusion Worker Shayron.Anderson@thenuehousing.co.uk