Free To Be Your Age, Westerhailes, Edinburgh
Overview
Wester Hailes Education Centre is a purpose-built Community High School which brings together school students 12-18, and also large numbers of adults engaged in a range of education and leisure courses. It is also a recreational facility for the local community. This project was set up by two members of the Community Education Department within the Centre and was a collaboration between adult and school students, undertaken outside of school hours. It was funded for 2008 by the Big Lottery. It involved the age groups working together in the creation of an intergenerational song and digital photography images. This included two poster designs, photographic images for a website on the theme of challenging ageism, and the final collation, design and construction of material for the website.
The overall aim was to create a DVD of 10-15 minutes of lively motivational footage designed to inspire others to think and maybe reframe their ideas about age. It is intended to be a positive film which shows that through reflection and artistic, expressive and collaborative project work, stereotypes can be broken down. We hoped others, such as the police, youth workers and teachers, might include this DVD as part of a toolbox to help work on combating ageism.
Key factors in project's success
Adults and school students had a strong interest in learning and applying more in the various creative medium e.g. photography and website construction. We were successful in recruiting a group of sympathetic adults who loved music keyboard classes and songwriting as well as being interested in young people. A definite advantage was in having a team of highly skilled creative artists in each the chosen fields ;songwriting digital photography and web design.
The creative media we used involved using sound recording studios, which added attraction and particularly appealed to young people.The songwriting process involved school students and adults in active reflection about each other's situation.
Gradually through some discussion and having fun together taking photos the barriers came down and age differences seemed to matter less. Participants from both age groups felt they had come to understand more about how it was to experience life in the other's shoes. The launch and the celebration together with an intergenerational cake brought people into a enjoyable conclusion.
Quotes from the project participants during the course of the year -
"Everything we did was fun when we got together with older people." (School student)
"I felt quite comfortable speaking about how we feel". (Older adult student)
Project and Community Education workers Evelyn Pennycook and Beryl Homan said:
"Wester Hailes Education Centre has been a perfect setting to bring both younger and older adult students together to explore ageism. We are grateful to have received Big Lottery funding to enable us to do this kind of work"
Copies of the DVD can be obtained by email contact with Project Workers.
'Free to be your age' was highly commended in the Standard Life Achievement Awards for Children and Families.
Contacts:Beryl Homan or Evelyn Pennycook
Wester Hailes Education Centre, 5 Murrayburn Drive, Edinburgh EH14 2SU
T:0131 442 2201 'Free to be your Age' website.
Click here to return to Edinburgh and Lothian projects.
