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Young people and local residents team up to make Whitley Bay even better
Young people and local residents team up to make Whitley Bay even better
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
Young people and local residents team up to make Whitley Bay even better
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
Located a few miles north of the mouth of the Tyne, Whitley Bay emerged as a holiday resort at the end of the 19th century. Like many British seaside towns, visitor numbers have dropped over the past three decades, shrinking the local economy. It’s presented the town with challenges - a shrinking, seasonal job market, and a rise in anti-social behaviour - but local residents are determined to change this. They applied to work with UnLtd as part of its Star People programme, funded by Local Trust. Star People aims to unleash the energies of people in Big Local areas to help them make their area even better. Each year UnLtd chooses up to 15 areas to work with intensively, helping to foster a deeper culture of social entrepreneurship. Gerry Beldon is part of that culture. He’s a social entrepreneur; founder of Under the Dome, a 17-day programme of ‘creative mayhem’ for tourists and local residents, featuring storytelling, comedy, music, dance and drama. ‘Traditionally we've done really well with families with young kids and the over 35s but we didn't have a lot of engagement from people between 10 and 35. We needed those people involved.’ Gerry is one of a number of local social entrepreneurs who took part in a three day programme at Whitley Bay High School to match year nine students with local social projects, run in partnership Whitley Bay Big Local and UnLtd. Young people got the opportunity to choose which projects they wanted to get involved with and were given £500 to test out their ideas, following pitches from local social entrepreneurs outlining issues they wanted help to tackle. Gerry was one of the lucky entrepreneurs whose project was chosen.
‘Getting young people involved in the festival opened our eyes to some shortfalls we’ve had in our marketing and programming,’ said Gerry. ‘We had a couple of groups of students helping us doing different things,’ he explained, ‘Some went out and did some market research for us, others came and did some lighting during the festival.’ For Gerry getting the project has really brought home the value of involving young people in organising community activities. ‘I now want a group of young people's advisors that can help change that. If we can get more young people along we can really start to build a buzz, get everyone out on the seafront having a good time.’
Another team of young people from the school got together to help make a local wildlife garden more accessible for people with disabilities. They got a local charity involved to research what the community garden might do better and created a sensory garden, with raised flowerbeds and interactive ornaments. ‘My best moment was when we had some people from come down to see the garden. It was great seeing their faces light up as they interacted with it,’ said one of the students. Several are involved in helping to create themed mini-libraries around the town. ‘I really like reading and I really like doing art,’ explained another student, ‘I’d just finished doing the community garden and I fancied doing something else - I thought it was really interesting and wanted to help.’ It’s this outcome - young people getting involved with their community beyond the project - that shines through. It shows how a little bit of time and money can have a big impact to a local area and the people that live there. ‘Whitley Bay now has all of these young people volunteering to get involved in projects,’ explained Amjid Hussain, Star People Award Manager, ‘They’re creating the next generation of social change.’
Images by Dun_Deagh and David Anderson