YEP! (Youth Engagement Project)

YEP Cambridge.

‘Active Citizenship for Youth’ by Oblique Arts: 10+ young people who formed the YEP! Committee with Oblique Arts participated and delivered community workshops and projects while having skill training workshops with Oblique Arts, partnering with other local (community) organisations in Cambridgeshire. In the period of March ’17– March’18

Project outcomes.

Active citizenship for YEP! participants.
The young people of YEP! became engaged through creative activities in active citizenship. The young people gained increased awareness of the organisations in their locality and increased their skill set, whilst making a social impact in their area through involvement set out by Oblique Arts and the Cambridge County Council. They continue to do this.

Abbey People
Together with Oblique Arts the YEP members identified two areas of Cambridge that are recognised as economically deprived and with high percentage of 8-15 year olds that are potentially heading towards the NEETS sector: Abbey and Barnwell. Following conversations with Abbey People we devised creative workshops for the Youth Club, hosted a workshop at the free lunch event at Baptist Church and volunteered at the Pumpkin Festival.

Creative workshops for Abbey People Youth Club in Barnwell Cambridge
During the workshops at the Junction and Rock Road Library we designed several workshops with the YEP members and taught the YEP members about the importance of social engaged art practice, using art as a tool to inspire and educate. Together with us the YEP members came up with a series of workshops for thirty 8–14yr olds. Three YEP members worked with two artists at the weekly Abbey Youth Club helping other young people make an art work to bring home.

Workshops at the free Lunch for people in Abbey and Barnwell at Barnwell Church:
Our YEP members got asked if they would like to volunteer at the lunch by hosting
creative workshops for the children that would come with their parents for the lunch.
It was a quiet day; however we did get some children keen to join in the workshop.
The creative workshop we designed were our popular masking tape paint and
canvas workshop and we allowed the children to splatter with paint as well!

Volunteering at the Abbey People Pumpkin festival:
Our YEP member Gemma volunteered at the Abbey People Pumpkin Festival, she helped set-up and supported Kettles Yard with their art workshop. After the event
was finished she also helped with clearing up. During this experience Gemma
learned about how much work goes into a one day community event, gaining Time
Credits. Hundreds of people came to the centre to join in with the festivities.

Cambridge Sustainable Food – Sugar Smart short film.
Our YEP Members worked with Cambridge Sustainable Food to create a short-film
about the effects of sugar on our bodies. The aim was to create a short film that
would be shown to young people and would be appropriate to show at youth clubs
and schools. They worked together with two artists with whom they made a story
board and the images. Then an editor helped to make it into a short film.

Please see short film here:

https://youtu.be/M2eu2HNh82E

By getting involved with different groups and events, the YEP members were able
to build further relationships between already existing groups within the community.

They could offer input and further community engagement with other young people
accessing groups they wouldn’t normally come in contact with. We feel these links
are needed to highlight for young people how they can become actively involved
with their local community.

2. YEP group as key Youth Proofers.

The YEP! group formed themselves into a group who have unique skills and services
to offer to business and community partners. The young people have developed
some skills with website design and marketing using different media platforms. The
YEP group build upon these skills in order to offer a service whereby businesses
may easily find the group and invite the group to assess provision for young people in particular. They established a partnership with organisations such as The Cambridge Junction, Abbey People and Cambridge Live where the organisation learns from the YEP members on how to approach their audience and to understand their audience better. Young people formed meaningful relationships with these businesses and the community groups. They were able to support events at community centres and provide feedback to the businesses about their marketing and how to engage more young people. For the YEP! members this was a unique experience of understanding business engagement with customers from inside the organisation. We see that this is an area of the programme that could be further developed in after the ending of the current project.

Partners:
– Abbey People
– The Junction
– Cambridge Live – Cambridge Folk Festival
– Cambridge Suistanble Food – Sugar Smart

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