| Creative Communities Programme |
BackgroundBased on the learning acquired though Youth Space, (MADE’s previous programme of youth involvement), the Creative Communities programme is developing models of practice for young people’s creative participation in the built environment. A key strand of the programme is the role of artists and creative practitioners acting as a “bridge “between young people and built environment professionals. Creative Communities also enables the sector to identify the “training” needs of existing staffing within local authorities and service/organisations that support community engagement in the built environment and to ensure excellent documentation and public communication the activities of the programme. The programme includes 3 live projects in the region, a symposium (March 2008), and a website Symposium March 2008 Under the Influence – The Power of Young People to Inform Public SpaceThe symposium attracted 70 delegates from a range of professions as well as speakers from national agencies such as Bill Badham from the National Youth Agency and Joost Beunderman from DEMOS. The day also included a timely presentation from Wanda Brown from DCSF regarding the play pathfinders and international inspiration from Pihla Meskanen, director of ARKKI, school of architecture for children and youth in Helsinki, Finland. Read the article from the Birmingham Post The Website-FirstSiteAiming to create the first virtual architecture centre with and for young people From a regional perspective and through a regional organisation obtaining true regional representation of young people is a difficult task with out appropriate partners. The young people who are engaged in the live project delivery have access to the website to create blogs, post images and designs about the work that they are currently under taking, providing a means of communication between project participants. The web site will also provide space to post further information such as good practice advice/projects, “how to” guides and information about funding opportunities etc. This is particularly relevant to the development of the youth capital fund and participation agendas where young people are being asked to make decision and fund raise for changes to their community spaces. The concept of a virtual architecture centre for young people, highlights MADE’s commitment to this area of work providing a place to post information regarding MADE’s project work with young people but also as a place to gather feed back and information from young people. Live ProjectsThe Arch , Armington Tamworth 10 years ago, a MUGA (multi use games area) was removed as part of a housing development and an amount of money to finance the installation of a new youth leisure structure has been held by the council. Despite consultation, the replacement of this facility has still not been taken forward due to residents’ concerns. As consultation to this point has been about the replacement of a MUGA, MADE suggested that perhaps a broader approach that explores what the community really wanted might provoke a more positive response. The programme of work is developing well however it has been hit by the decline of the Staffordshire Youth Service and as a result the closures of the youth centre on the Kerria. Steps are being taken to address these difficulties and source other avenue through which to re engage 13-19 year olds. Solihull North Regeneration Alan Michel (Principal youth officer) is engaged in a number of working groups regarding the regeneration of north Solihull. He became concerned that plans for youth provision where being made with the consultation of young people and as a result was keen to represent young people in this work. A bid for a 2 year post in youth involvement was submitted to the children’s fund and has been successful therefore Solihull will be appointing a worker in near future. MADE will be working with the new participation worker to support youth engagement in the regeneration process through creative consultation processes. Black Country – “The Tibby” The regeneration of The Black Country is a recognised area of development, which MADE wish to continue to play a role in; therefore a considerable amount of effort has been invested in developing partnerships in this particular area. Currently a partnership is being nurtured between the community planners and Digital Native Academy. The anticipated programme of work will explore the use of gaming and creative new technologies as a method of engaging young people in the urban design and master planning of the Tibbington estate, Sandwell. For this piece of work we plan to use peer-mentoring methods to enable the community as a whole to engage in the master planning process. |
