DigitalMe: Young people in lockdown
Our Inspiring Futures project took on a new form earlier this year when we had to bring our first phase online due to COVID-19. Working with a group of young people from Barnardo’s Independence Project, our practitioners taught digital skills over zoom to create a digital project.
What did lockdown mean to young people? Creating avatars and telling the zoom camera what lockdown looked like in their world in their own voice, the young people created a thought provoking and moving montage.
We were really pleased when the Government announced the road map out of lockdown which meant that we could look to move phase 2 back into the classroom.
Now with a bigger group our Newcastle-born practitioners Michael and James (who work in TV and film and resumés include Peaky Blinders and TV awards) introduced the young people to the world of TV and film making, drawing on their real-life experiences to inspire and encourage.
The young people aged 12-16 worked together to decide upon a topic that they felt passionate about: Education. What were the good, bad and ugly points of the education system and more importantly... was it working for the individual?
The young team then created a narrative by researching, interviewing and drawing on their own conclusions before taking on production roles to film and edit in order to create a short documentary. Culminating in a socially distanced screening, the young people and the team from Barnardo’s reviewed the completed film to great applause.
This summer we will complete phase 3 of the Inspiring Futures project with hopefully more restrictions lifted so we can meet with a client and produce a film to that company/organisation’s brief and deadlines. The aim of this project is to give the young people real work experiences in order gain confidence and develop employability skills.