Facilitators included:
- Hamza Vayani, Chief Executive, Youth Voice
- Andy Kelly, Young Roots Coordinator, Heritage Lottery Fund
- Caroline Gleaves, Youth Arts Manager, Trafford Youth Service
- Marika Spence, performed in the community play on day one of the conference and is involved with Trafford Youth Service
It is essential to engage and inspire young people about heritage if the future is to preserve the past. The workshop looked at two issues:
Kelly spoke about the five-year grant-awarded Young Roots programme – a funding provider for young people’s heritage projects. ‘The key to obtaining grants is getting young people participating in projects from the outset.’
Points to consider when bidding include:
- What heritage skills do you have? For example, what is your equipment?
- What personal development skills (e.g. presentation) do you possess?
- What new skills (e.g. drama, dance) can you employ?
Click to download Andy Kelly’s soundbite or press play below:
Vayani presented on his work at Leicester-based Youth Voice regarding a project 
‘Creating Tomorrow’s Heritage Today’. Young Roots had supported this. It reflected the cultural diversity in Leicester and found ways of involving young people from all backgrounds.
Gleaves gave a short presentation on an arts and heritage project with Quarry Bank 
Mill in Styal, funded by Young Roots. She stressed the importance of establishing ground rules in partnerships to help build relationships and avoid communication breakdown.
Before the workshop closed, delegates discussed the issues highlighted and gave feedback, raising points such as:
- Be clear about aims and goals
- Manage expectations from both sides
- Make the project relevant to the young people’s lives
- Make the project finite, but what is the value and sustainability beyond?
- Use appropriate specialists
- Ask young people what they want
I completely agree about asking young people what they want and perhaps we need to look at the ways we use to do that. Mobile phones are a major part of youth culture, including texting and photos, so also is blogging and virtual spaces such as “My Space”. This is how young people communicate, are creative and socialise virtually in the 21st century, and maybe these are the very means we need to take on board to find out their aspirations, desires and interests, and also to embrace this as an important part of their culture when we think about offering them involvement in heritage projects.
Hi Angela,
Thanks for the comment.
You raise a very interesting point about how young people communicate nowadays. A friend of mine consults with organisations about ’social media’. One of his fundamental arguments is ‘you need to understand the txt generation. If you don’t, other employers will, and you won’t attract the best talent’. Maybe it could even be argued that digital communities form part of contemporary heritage too?
Matt (BlogEd)
Hi Matt,
yes, I do strongly feel that people of my generation,
who maybe are parents of teenagers, have a completely different atitude to texting, than young people.Maybe for us its just an alternative quick way of contact, but for teenagers and kids it is cetainly much, much more. At conference I picked up a fantastic booklet called Viewpoint, here poets, and artists worked with community groups to generate 200 poems about The Fenlands, and they encouraged the use of mobile phones as a creative tool, so the poems generated were freely accessible to mobile phone users over a period of time.
I’d be very interested in more ideas about texting and other digital means of engaging people in their heritage.
Hi Angela,
Regarding engagement of young people and technology. It’s a fairly simple rule, ‘Go where the eyeballs and eardrums are’. You can learn alot, just being on the street. Aside from mobile phones, what’s the other device you see on the street? Answer: iPOD’s and other digital media players. Portable devices of all kinds are only set to grow in popularity.
Incidentally, i’ve put out an email to someone I listen to regularly. He’s an American chap called Shel Holtz, who is a co-presenter of a podcast called ‘For Immediate Release’. (http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz’. The common subject matter is new media development and its usage both internally and externally of organisations. A few months ago, he did a superb interview with his daughter about how she and her friends use different media types. I did try to identify the precise episode for you, but couldn’t find it. Anyhow, i’m sure he’ll respond, and i’ll forward on a download link for you to listen.
It’s interesting you raised the point around youth / engagement / media. You weren’t the first, at the event. Several informal conversations I had with participants also said their challenges were exactly the same.
All the best,
Matt (Blog ED).
Hi Angela,
Shel did respond this afternoon. He’s even agreed to my editing out the relevant section for you. Obviously it’s U.S focused, but i’m sure there’s some good lessons in it.
I’ve uploaded it to the blog server. Just ‘cut’n'paste’ into your browser.
LINK: http://www.yourplaceormine.org.uk/audio/young_person_media_interview.mp3
This clip is attributed to Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, who produce ‘For Immediate Release’. http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz
Andy Kelly makes a very interesting point. The headmaster at my school has failed on several occassions to get the project funding we hoped for. Now i think i realise why. He just dreamt up ideas without actually really talking to the children first.