Welcome to Hype!

The idea behind this project was to bring together younger and older people together to come to an understanding about how people live their lives.  

Young people explained that apart from their own families they do not have an opportunity to meet with older members of our community and try to develop positive relationships respect and understandings for each other.

Who was involved?

Our first point of contact was Forum 50 our Older Peoples Parliament .  We organised our first initial meeting  with members of Forum 50 and Young People’s Parliament to explain our idea and see where we could take this idea.

We discussed that importance of conversation and developing ideas around understanding each other and how we live our lives. After a few meetings we came up with the idea of ‘Handing On History Project’. Within this we decided on 3 themes:   

Photography/Film project

Creative Writing

Dance workshops

Forum 50 members and Young People from the Parliament were involved as the planning team and planned our work programme.

We decided we needed help and expertise so we contacted Dance City to help with the Dance Workshops and we also contacted the Sage in Newcastle and hired in our film maker, and a creative writer to help form our ideas.

The reason for this was so that all members could take an active equal part without the distraction of taking photographs or filming each other. This worked really well.

How were young people involved in the decision making?

The young people were involved from the outset and organised all the meetings and planned the first year programme.

Young people facilitated the meetings and took minutes of the meetings. 

Young people feel that the project was so successful because it was young person led approach with support from adults and this enabled the group members to remain interested to see the work through to a positive result.  

What has changed for the better?

This project has enabled young and older people to come together and talk about their lives, similarities and differences, but ultimately to understand each other more and understand how each other live their lives.  

Pictured are members of our friends in Forum 50 at the end of our first year’s programme.

Centre picture shows Bill aged (92 and a half!) going through family pictures explaining his life and where he got his values in life from.

Barry is pictured with a painting he has made. The photos surrounding the picture show the family farm where he used to live, an area that means a lot to him.   

This is year one of a two year project – the project has brought young and older people together and engage in the ‘art of conversation’ face to face.   

Impact for change is Understanding and Conversation between the age groups.   We are on our way to Year 2 now and our next session is out on the water – we are talking all Forum 50 sailing, powerboating and jetskiing.   

For more information please contact Tracey Moore, Youth Participation Officer, 0191 4247718.