North East Lincolnshire Council - Children and Young People's Involvement in Shaping Their Neighbourhood
A group of young people, ranging in age from 7-17 years, coming from a variety of backgrounds and calling themselves EMAG (East Marsh Action Group) created a film of their neighbourhood. It covered topics such as vandalism, activities, parks and housing.
The film, which was premiered at a local film theatre, became a really powerful tool, allowing services to identify issues and consult further with the group on such things as:
- strategic housing plans;
- rewording and redesigning information to improve people’s understanding of migrant workers;
- their views on the rebuild of their local library.
The success of EMAG has led to a rollout of the programme and, to date, over 70 more young people have made 6 films about their communities.
During Easter 2008 EMAG created a follow up film which:
· captured and visualised things that had changed and improved;
· identified issues still to be resolved;
· identified solutions to make improvements.
This practice will be rolled out to the other groups and will be used both as an evaluation and assessment of impact on the communities, and to inform and shape future service and community developments as seen through the eyes of young people.