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MOST VULNERABLE YOUNGSTERS FROM LIVERPOOL AND KNOWSLEY REACH FOR
SCRIPT SUCCESS WITH BBC AND NCH
IN a first of
its kind, a new partnership between children’s charity NCH and the
BBC will give some of the Merseyside’s most vulnerable children the
opportunity to become the creative stars of the future.
NCH is working with BBC Writersroom, placing leading writers in NCH
projects across the country. Writers in Residence will work with
some of the UK’s most disadvantaged children including young
runaways, teenagers with disabilities and children facing challenges
from isolation to poverty, to unlock and nurture their creative
talents in a hunt for the next generation of top scriptwriters.
The rollout of writers in residence begins with 2 writers in
Merseyside coinciding with Liverpool’s year as Capital of Culture.
The top writers, whose works include some of the country’s most
popular dramas like Eastenders, Brookside, Doctors and The Street, will
introduce young people to the media industry in all its forms.
Lasting for up to 6 months, creative workshops will see these
professionals harness the talents of their would-be successors.
Drawing on the experience and inspiration of writers, youngsters
will delve into their creative depths and find new forms of
expression, creating written pieces that range from short movies,
animation, and online soaps.
Kate Rowland, BBC Creative Director of New Writing, who set up BBC
Writersroom explains:- “Our aim at BBC Writersroom is to find
the writing stars of tomorrow and nurture the best young talent out
there. We want to hear different and untold perspectives on the
reality of modern Britain -and young people from NCH projects can
provide just that. But this collaboration with NCH also provides a
chance for professional writers to use their talents in a different
and extremely rewarding way. They will be opening young people’s
eyes to talents they never knew they had, and offering them an
insight into the opportunities available within the creative
industries. We're thrilled to be part of this pioneering
partnership and we look forward to some of this work reaching a
wider audience on different platforms."
Young people from 2 Merseyside based projects, the NCH Knowsley
Family Intervention Project (FIP), which works with families at risk
of eviction and homelessness as a result of anti-social behaviour
and NCH Liverpool Young Runaways Project, which supports young
people up to the age of 17 years, who go missing or run away from
home or care within the Liverpool area, attended the launch of
the BBC initiative at The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain in London
21 May.
Jake, aged 14, who is attending the first pilot workshop at NCH’s
Knowsley FIP said:- “When I was told about the workshops I
thought they might be boring, but they have actually been really
fun. Last week animators came to the session and I was really
impressed by their sketches. I enjoyed working from their sketches
to make character models from plasticine, and am looking forward to
the next workshop.”
Launching the partnership, NCH’s Chief Executive Clare Tickell
explains:- “This partnership is so exciting and unique,
offering our young people chances that never come their way. Our
Growing Strong campaign has shown that building self-esteem,
confidence and resilience is vital for young people, particularly
for the most excluded. This scheme will help achieve this. The doors
are now open to develop their skills through creativity and writing
to cope with many of the challenges they will face in the future.”
Roy Boulter, writer for The Street (BBC1) and Brookside (Channel 4)
and Lucia Haynes, writer on Doctors (BBC1), are the first to take
residence at NCH projects in Liverpool and Knowsley. Lucia, said:-
”I'm a few weeks into my project and I am enjoying the
experience. I've been very lucky with my group who are enthusiastic
and are keen to participate. I've been supported by project workers
in the sessions who are also on hand to give advice whenever I need
it."
Karen Fletcher, Project Manager at Knowsley Family Intervention
Project:- "The writers workshops at the project has given the
youngsters a wonderful opportunity to express themselves and let
their ideas be heard.
They have bonded as a group and I have seen
their self-esteem rise as they have taken pride in how their ideas
are developing into an exciting story which has also given them the
opportunity to explore consequences of behaviour.”
Lesley Stopforth, Project Manager at Liverpool Young Runaways,
said:- “The Writers Room Workshops has been an excellent
opportunity for our young people, as it has enabled them to take
part in the creative process of sharing ideas, script writing and
the seeing their ideas transferring into a DVD.
Giving the young
people the opportunity to work with our writer and a professional
actress was fantastic for the young people, as they supported,
encouraged and motivated the young people to be able to take part
in, what was for many of them, was a very frightening experience -
being filmed.” |
OLDER PEOPLE ARE SICK AT THE THOUGHT OF THEIR FUTURE
1 in 4 older
people in the North West have become so worried about the future
that they are making themselves ill, according to the 3rd annual ‘Spotlight’
report produced by leading older people’s charity Help the Aged. The
number of older people concerned about their future to the extent
that their physical health has been affected has risen by the
equivalent of nearly a million in the last year.
‘Spotlight 2008’ draws attention to the issues faced by
vulnerable older people living in the UK today:- ageism; neglect;
poverty; isolation and future deprivation. With limited progress on
many of the issues in the past year, the Charity is urging the
Government to remedy the long term neglect of older people. Help the
Aged is challenging Gordon Brown’s Government to ease their worries
by ensuring they have equal rights and are free from discrimination,
wherever it confronts them, from hospitals to the high street.
Paul Cann, Director of Policy & External Relations at Help the Aged,
comments:- “This year’s ‘Spotlight’ report shines a light on
some of the worsening facts of life for today’s pensioners. It’s
appalling that we live in a society where older people feel sick
with worry about the future. The Government must ease their concerns
by banning the ageism that continually sinks its poison right into
the heart of our society.”
Other key facts which show the reality of growing older in the UK
include:-
Grinding poverty grinds on. In the past 12 months an estimated 200,000 extra pensioner
households in the UK have been plunged into fuel poverty. The same
number of older people are living in poverty in 2008 as in the
previous year, with 21% of pensioners surviving below the poverty
line. 15% of UK pensioners are living in persistent poverty.
Ageism rife. 34% of older respondents to Help the Aged research in the North West
is equivalent to 376,584 older people, agreed that health
professionals tend to treat older people as a nuisance. The
Charity’s ‘Just Equal Treatment’ campaign has highlighted the
rampant age discrimination faced by older people, and called for a
complete ban on age discrimination and a new duty on public bodies
to promote age equality, as part of the Equality Bill announced in
last week’s Draft Legislative Programme.
Dignity shock. The proportion of older people in England who say they are not
always treated with dignity in hospital has worsened from 21% to
22%. Provision of low level social care dropped dramatically with
11% fewer households - the equivalent of well over a million people; receiving care in England than in the previous year.
Access denied. 1 in 10 people in the UK aged 75 or over find it very difficult to
get to their local corner shop, a jump of 3% points in just a year.
In 2008, an estimated 44,304 older people in the North West do not
get the help they need to get out of their own home, up from 2007.
According to ‘Spotlight’, around 132,912 older people in the
North West are lonely, this translates nationally to a
disappointingly small improvement of just 3% points on 2007.
Paul Cann concludes:- “While the report paints a rather dismal
picture of growing older in the UK, there have been some steps
forward. More people aged 60 and over in Great Britain are taking up
their entitlement to concessionary fares and the digital divide
seems to be narrowing with people aged 65 and over now more likely
to have used the internet. That said, the Government has an
enormous job to do to improve the lives of older people. As society
ages, the demands of older people will rightly get louder and
louder. The Government must respond or run the risk of alienating
millions of voters as we approach the next general election.”
As part of the launch of the 2008 ‘Spotlight’ report, Help
the Aged has issued a series of key policy demands from the
Government. These are:-
* Include a complete ban on age discrimination in the upcoming
Equality Bill;
* Outlaw mandatory
retirement ages in employment;
* The establishment
of a targeted strategy to reduce pensioner poverty;
* Introduction of a
system of automatic payments of benefits for older people;
* A set of clear
plans for the eradication of fuel poverty in vulnerable households
by 2010;
* A commitment to a
new settlement for funding a transparent, universal method of
delivering social care for our ageing population. |
