International Women’s Day 2014

Overview

This project was the first community event held by the new Wishaw Youth Forum members. The purpose of the project was to gather families of three generations together for a photo shoot which would be celebrated at a main event. The photo shoot enabled families involved to spend time together with a photographer to create pictures which showed the relationship between the generations.

The photos were exhibited on the 15th March where women of all ages from Wishaw were invited to came together to participate in a variety of activities.

The event also promoted the work of the Youth Forum to the wider community, and enabled the young people to hear more about different organisations currently working within the area. This was the first time the Youth Forum had worked in partnership with the Local Community Forum. People of all ages participated in yoga, bollywood dancing and arts and crafts together. In particular the arts and crafts activity was extremely popular as it was a quiet activity and allowed all the women to have a discussion whilst they focused on their designs.

Two photo shoots were held inviting a wide variety of ages to each of the three sessions age ranging from 1 to 82. Eleven families were involved with 63 people taking part in the final event.

You can check out the photos of the Wishaw & Shotts Youth Forum Facebook page

Benefits for the Community

  • Wishaw Youth Forum have a greater understanding of the objectives of the Community Forum
  • Profiles of both forums were raised to people and organisations within the local community
  • Increased partnership working

The Youth Forum plan to continue to work in partnership with the Community Forum and plan to organise a similar activity for 2015.

Benefits for the Younger People

  • An opportunity to join the Wishaw Youth Forum
  • A more positive image and greater understanding of older people from Wishaw
  • An opportunity to challenge negative perceptions of young people
  • Enjoyment of new experiences and activities including yoga and bollywood dancing
  • Increased understanding and experience of planning and hosting a community event

Benefits for the Older People

  • A more positive image of young people from the Wishaw Area
  • Increased awareness of existing activities within the Wishaw Area
  • An opportunity to try out new activities such as yoga and bollywood dancing
  • Enjoyment of new experiences – interacting with young people

Funding

North Lanarkshire Council Community Learning and Development and the Wishaw Murdostoun Fortissat Community Forum

Evaluation

  • Comment slips were handed out and completed by participants as they left the event on the 15th
  • Comments were gathered on Facebook

Awards

  • Four young people used this project as a section of their Bronze Youth Achievement Award
  • Another young person used this as part of their service section of their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award

Local Priorities

This project fits under the Council’s Priority of Lifelong Learning in which we strive to provide more opportunities for learning and Building Stronger Communities.

Scottish NPF Strategic Objectives

This project contributes to the Scottish National Performance Framework (NPF).

SMARTER – Expanding opportunities to succeed from nurture through to lifelong learning ensuring higher and more widely shared achievements.

Scottish NPF Outcomes

Our young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens: To enable children, young people and (subsequently) adults to thrive from an early age, and make a positive contribution in the 21st century.