I was concerned about the gang culture in my local area, and felt that some barriers needed to be broken down between 2 of my local estates. I wanted to get young people from each estate to get involved with a film project, that would give them the opportunity to tell each side of the story -what it's like growing up round here. I wanted the local community to realise that young people have got something to say, and it isn't always negative. So getting people involved in my community project was going to be a challenge- but i was really up for it! I got some mates together and borrowed a camera from the youth club i was volunteering in So here goes..

What's being done

I was a volunteer youth worker on one of the estates youth clubs. I could see the tensions between the two communites and thought it would be positive if we could change something, bring people together- to share something this could hopefully spark some dialogue between the two enemy estates.

How it started

The feedback from the local community was ace, and the young people's confidence improved. What was important and noticable was observing the new firendships blossoming, and having these 'enemies' in the same room together had it's moments but in the end it really did make a difference,, some walked out, most got stuck in. We had a time limit and they all wanted to have a final pleasing outcome.

I would advise anyone else to get involved with their local youthclubs /even as a volunteer -you can apply for a small amount of funding too -that will make the project run a bit smoother.

What was cool is that some of the young people wanted to get invovled in a new projects themselves and couldn't wait for the next one!

More

I offered free camera workshops in the youthclubs in the area -giving other young people the chance to have a go at filming/acting/directing etc. This generated some strange looks at first -who was i? what did i want?

After a few weeks the young people realised they had an opportunity to give it a shot -the response was positive.

Week by week we would start to think about the community issues in the area- how did they feel about the negative press the area gets?

In the end my idea was just the spark - It was those young people that made the project -who gave it that extra something. It wasn't about me and my mates -it was about the achivements that these young peopl had made.

We met the young people ft for the first time at a non judgemental venue- that was new to all of us. We had an intensive 3 day filming and acting of the film. From Storyboparding to script to rehearsing- to filming. It was hectic -but we had fun.

Some of them came and helped edit the film -which was to be shown in 2 weeks time at a venue in town- people form the local community, parents, friends, councillors -the whole schbang!!

It had a great response -the film was called 'One Love' and explored how being enemies can have it's problems -it was like an urban westside story!