We’ve moved!

You can now read all about the Redbridge project over on the new Bold Creative Blogs http://blogs.boldcreative.co.uk/redbridge/

UTurn Workshops: Mayfield School

The group are now delivering UTurn Workshops to the whole of year 9 at Mayfield School, Redbridge. The videos collected during the workshops are being uploaded to our UTurn account at Tagmap.co.uk and will be displayed across a map of Redbridge. The idea is that the opinions in the videos will be available to groups doing the UTurn workshops in the future. Check out the pictures:

Haider warms up the crowd.

This was the third of 4 sets of workshops. Haider did the honours leading this one, supported by Ahmed and Adil.

Make sure you don’t miss the action!

The group soon got the hang of using the cameras and grilling each other on the questions. Once they got started, the hardest thing was to get them to stop!

Say cheese!

The UTurn guys did a great job keeping the discussions going and getting the young people to think a bit about their answers.

Job done. We’ve had a lot of fun so far and have been hearing some interesting points of view. Look out! Coming to a school near you!

UTurn Workshop Leadership Training

After finishing off our DVD we decided that it’s so good that we wanted to take it into local schools in Redbridge, so we’ve been training up some of the UTurn group to lead workshops in their local school. This involved three days of training in a local youth centre and quite a lot of fun. Check out the pics.

Days 1 & 2

The first two days involved an introduction to the DVD and it’s features, a series of session exploring possible workshop techniques and some practice sessions, where the young people took it in turns to run a workshop with the rest of the group.

The group worked with us to develop their own workshop plan and a series of interactive activities designed to capture the discussions had in the workshops themselves.

Arslan taking notes. As the workshop Leader he’ll be responsible for keeping the workshops on track and on time.

Haider (in the foreground) and Suleman (in blue) will be responsible for working with workshop participants during the workshops and ‘controlling the crowd’.

The group drew up a series of simple workshop rules and Adil (foreground) will be responsible for ‘laying down the law’ at the beginning of each workshop.

Day 3

On the third day the group tried out the workshop skills they’d been practicing on some of their friends. At times it was tough but they did manage to get some great discussions going and manage some unruly participants very effectively.

Arslan leading the group.

The group does an ‘energiser’.

Answering some tricky questions.

Haider gives out the IFlip cameras!

Kaider does the grilling in the break away groups.

With the training behind us we’re all looking forward to getting started at the school. Our first workshop is on the 16th March. Can’t wait!  The sessions will involve young participants interviewing each other on IFlip cameras and the resulting videos will be uploaded onto a giant map. This web of opinions will then be made available for other young people doing the workshops in the future.

Final Outcome U-Turn Magazine

It was identified that the magazine would be a key part of communication in:

Peer to peer understanding and awareness through real stories

Connect to parents

Mythbust on negative perceptions of young people

Provide a call to action for young people to get back and reconnect get back involved in education.

Support intergenerational dialogue

Meet local community cohesion objectives

Empower Young people to make a positive change

Empower young people to make a ‘U-Turn’

Click on the photo to see the full magazine….

The magazine U-Turn:

With the help of young people we worked to develop and generate content for the magazine. This magazine was produced by young people for young people, to meet a specific community cohesion objective, while also promoting peer-to-peer and intergenerational understanding. With young people taking part and contributing to the process, it was ensured that the voice of the magazine was ‘Young people telling it like it is on the issues that matter’.

Final Outcome: Interactive DVD

Final Outcome:

We hosted a series group contribution sessions over a 3 month period with the core group. The idea of the workshops were to excite and develop young people’s skills in design, film journalism and media in order to generate necessary creative materials for an interactive DVD and magazine that combine to create the ‘U-Turn Project’.

The Interactive DVD would be a key part of communication in:

Alleviating gang tension

Supporting Respect & Understanding

Intergenerational misconceptions

Encouraging intergenerational dialogue

Changing negative perception e.g. Wearing of Hoodies

Challenging Prejudice

The Final outcome:

The U-Turn Project – Young people telling it like it is, on the issues that matter.

The group narrated the video, and came with ideas for the content as part of the workshop sessions.

The menu was themed around conversations that are likely on a train station platform. It allows you to choose which discussion or topic area you wish to view…

The interactive DVD a sustainable educational resource for youth and community leaders was designed to support and aid discussions important to young people.

Workshop: Young people and the Police

We had a visit from the police last week… but we all escaped with our freedom! Constable Ali dropped in to talk about some of the challenges he faces, along with getting the group to share some of their grievances and frustrations.

It was a really constructive session with hopefully both groups cooming away with a bit of insight into each other.

We are Redbridge too…

Workshop: Intergenerational dialogue

The team got stuck into the design last night, along with filming more interviews for the content of the magazine.

Jo Matthews is working with us to develop the interviews into written content for the mag – much easier for the boys who just get to sit back and talk!

We’ve also started work on the animation, recording an unusual and impressive conversation between the young guys and some of the older residents of Redbridge.

The exchange was heated at times, but common sense and respect prevailed with everyone sharing a pizza and a couple of stories about the war at the end. We’re all chuffed that we managed to get the two groups in a room talking constructively. Should make for an interesting animation…!

Magazine ideas

We are Redbridge

We got some great pics of the team last week. It would be great to use them as part of the graphic layout of the magazine…