Engaging Young People in Heritage

Documentary Media Centre was commissioned to deliver a number of creatively engaging projects as part of Leicester YMCA’s, Heritage Lottery Funded, Y Heritage Kick The Dust initiative. A £707,500 fund dedicated to working to better engage young people within the heritage sector.

We have been lucky enough to work with some fantastic young people from a variety of backgrounds on a number of projects that have seen us work to bring artefacts and objects to life through creating ‘Digital Personas’, opportunities for young people to create media and engaging content through ‘Media Makers’, the delivery of newsrooms and events for Heritage Open Day to mention a few. All of which have provided many young people, meaningful experiences and opportunities to develop a range of transferable life skills.

Our final project linked to Y Heritage was the creation of a 16-page newspaper to celebrate and showcase the 3-year project. The publication titled ‘Y Heritage?’ Was launched at a special celebratory event attended by project staff, stakeholders, funders and young people. The newspaper features a wealth of information about the project and the impact and it has achieved for the young people and organisations involved.

The publication has received lots of positive feedback and is an effective and engaging way of showcasing the work of the project and its impact.

You can collect a copy of the newspaper from the Documentary Media Centre or the Leicester Y Reception area.

Improve Your Conversational English

Meet the Lingo Links team – Shahy Aziz, Carole Clohesy and John Coster…..here we are talking about the Language Cafe that is hosted at the Documentary Media Centre, 14 Northampton Street, Leicester on the 1st Saturday of each month between 11:00am – 1:00pm. It is FREE to attend.

If you are seeking English language one-to-one support then we do offer personal tuition – please speak to any of us at a Language Cafe session.

World Day of Social Justice

The final day of my Parallel Lives programme falls on Saturday 20th February – UN World Day of Social Justice

From 12:00 midday I’ll be co-hosting a Pakistan Showcase with Andy Goss, UK author, journalist and humanitarian.

Andy has written a novel about the devastating 2005 Pakistan Earthquake that draws on his own experiences while in the affected region to support the humanitarian effort.

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Focus on South America

Day 9 of the 10-day Parallel Lives programme – Focus on South America

Central & South America or Latin America, continues to be a little known part of the world. The mainstream media often focus on the negative aspects of life on the continent, with politics and personalities dominating the headlines. But what of the people who live in each country. How do we get their stories told? Social media platforms can play a positive role in giving people both a voice but also a shop window to show their world to those on the outside.

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Students and the Sustainable Development Goals

Day 8 of the 10-day Parallel Lives programme is focused on Students and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

I wanted to explore how the SDGs can be used to engage students in conversations about the important global social issues of 2021. There are so many things that need action and the environment, climate change and sustainability dominate the headlines. Are the SDGs a good way of getting a student, no matter where they are living in the world, focused on the challenges and help them to view these through the eyes of others.?

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Memories of Home

Day 7 of the 10-day Parallel Lives programme – how do people choose to express Memories of Home?

How do we keep the memories alive when we move away from our home? What is the purpose…is it to keep hold of cherished moments with a person or to preserve a way of life that is or has disappeared. On this occasion, I was fortunate to meet someone who kept her Memories of Home alive by creating an opportunity to improve it when she returned.

I was thrust into the role of Independent Study Masters ISMA Supervisor in the 2019/20 Academic year. It pushed me outside my usual zone of comfort, of that I’m sure! But as with all things of this nature, it threw open a door that I was not expecting.

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Photography from Africa

It’s Day 6 of the 10-day Parallel Lives programme and the focus is on Photography from Africa.

I caught up with two old friends in Nairobi, Kenya……John Wambugu & Joel Lukhovi .

We’ve done lots of projects together over the years and one thing we always discuss is the representation of Africa in the media, and the role that photographers can play in challenging some of the stereotypes.

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Social Activism

On Day 5 of the Parallel Lives 10-day programme I will be focusing on Social Activism.

Firstly, let us start with a definition: ‘Social activism is working with other people to bring about a change in society.’ Whether you wish to see a big or small change in society, the only way is to get involved and actively participate. We can wait for others to do it for us. We have to take personal responsibility and help.

The SDGs 2030 agenda helps to bring focus to any conversation about what needs to be done, no matter where you are from on the planet. We are all affected by the changes taking place, especially around the climate.

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Child Trauma & Conflict

Day 4 of the 10-day Parallel Lives programme will look at the impact on children of conflicts across the globe today.

You can listen to my interview with Prof. Panos Vostanis, World Awareness for Children in Trauma www.wacit.org

The aim of this 10-day programme is to have conversations with issue experts looking at social issues and the impact on people. The majority of people I talk to only ‘understand’ today’s global conflicts and the impact, in terms of facts – dates, victims, winners & losers, We need to amplify the existing good practice to ensure people are both aware and understand the situation. Also what action they can take, no matter how small, to support the work of those working on the frontline.

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World Radio Day 2021

Welcome to Day Three of the Parallel Lives programme.

In celebration of the 100th episode of the Decentered Media Podcast I’m delighted to support my friend & colleague Rob Watson for a day of online discussion and best-practice sharing as part of the UNESCO World Radio Day

This year World Radio Day is divided into three main sub-themes:

  • EVOLUTION: The world changes, radio evolves – This sub-theme refers to the resilience of the radio, to its sustainability.
  • INNOVATION: The world changes, radio adapts and innovate – Radio has had to adapt to new technologies to remain the go-to medium of mobility, accessible everywhere and to everyone.
  • CONNECTION: The world changes, radio connects – This sub-theme highlights radio’s services to our society—natural disasters, socio-economic crises, epidemics, etc.

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