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by Averil Ferries, Senior Community, Learning Worker, Cornhill Community Centre
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| Aberdeen is divided into neighbourhoods for the purpose of community planning, each with a Neighbourhood Community Planning Network set up by Aberdeen City Council to enable local residents, community organisations, elected Councillors and partner agencies to identify key issues. Each neighbourhood has a local action plan that highlights issues identified and which service will take responsibility for acting on them. The Stockethill neighbourhood is a predominantly Council housing area located in the Central part of the city with a population of around 4000. It has a high population of people aged 60 and over, but in recent years there has been an increase in the number of young families moving into the area and this is reflected in the rising roll at the local primary school and the growing waiting list for nursery places. The area is served by two community centres situated in close proximity to each other. Cornhill Community Centre is attached to the local primary school and has a full time Senior Community Learning Worker responsible for number of part-time staff running a fairly comprehensive programme including crèches, Under 12s’ groups, an After School Club, youth work and adult education. Cairncry Community Centre is situated at the local shopping centre. It is leased from Aberdeen City Council by local volunteers who concentrate on running a leisure-based programme, with a caretaker/manager employed to oversee the Centre’s activities. Unlike Cornhill Community Centre, Cairncry has no access to part-time youth workers and consequently does not provide youth groups for teenagers. Volunteers have tried in the past to work with teenagers but this proved to be a negative experience and one that they have no desire to repeat. The shopping centre next to the Community Centre is a popular location for young people ‘hanging about’, and this is viewed by community centre members, shop owners and other adults in the area as being a constant annoyance. As a Community Learning Worker newly seconded to the Stockethill/Cornhill area, it became apparent to me that many young people in the area had little or no access to either Community Centre, despite the fact that the Neighbourhood Community Action plan highlighted the lack of activities and resources for young people in the area. The picture that was being painted of young people in the area, and of teenagers in particular, was not very positive. It seemed to me that adults in the neighbourhood attributed most of the anti-social behaviour to young people. They felt the problem was a lack of things for young people to do, and some thought that young people’s time should be put to better use in the community, such as ‘tidying up messy gardens’! Although adults in the area held views on what young people ‘should’ be doing, the views of young people were missing from the community planning process. The Stockethill Neighbourhood Community Action Plan indicated that the issue of anti-social behaviour involving young people and general youth disturbances were high on the list of priorities. This gave me a starting point for working with the community to pursue these issues, to support residents to explore them in detail and take action to begin to deal with them. Through discussion with community groups and individuals, it became apparent that the views of young people were missing. I planned to do two things; firstly to involve young people in some way in community planning and decision making about the type of activities they would like to see happening in the area, and secondly to work with young people to challenge the negativity around teenagers in the area and find ways of promoting a more positive image of them. Two youth groups were meeting at Cornhill Community Centre - a group of 13-14 year olds and a senior group aged 16-25 - and I was hopeful that these groups could be the starting point for young people becoming involved in the neighbourhood planning and decision making process. The senior group were willing to talk and I discovered that they had been trying for a number of years, with help from their local councillor, to have a football pitch levelled out and floodlit. They knew what was required and this information together with a drawing was passed on to the Neighbourhood Community Planning Officer. It was clear that the senior group was able to make their contribution and at this point I felt the main focus of my work should be centred on the younger teenagers. The younger teenagers were not so easy to engage with, however. Their attendance at the community centre was sporadic and when they did appear, youth workers spent the evening trying to resolve issues within the group. In addition, reports of increased youth disturbances in the neighbourhood resulted in the area being viewed as a ‘hotspot’ by police and other agencies. Aberdeen Streetwork Project, set up by Aberdeen City Council, SACRO and Grampian Police had begun to direct Street Youth Workers into the area to engage with young people. I met with the Street Workers and explained about the current issues. They provided valuable feedback from teenagers on the type of facilities and activities they would like to see developed. This was a useful starting point for a questionnaire to be put together to consult young people. At every opportunity, either by using the questions or by informal chats, youth workers and I gathered information from young people. At this point, I approached a number of children in Primary Seven who attended Cornhill Community Centre After School Project. After the first meeting, I had a group of young people who were interested in highlighting the issues on behalf of other young people in the area. The group spent the first few meetings discussing general issues that had arisen from the questionnaire results. The group went out into the area to seek the views of young people, and went on a walk-about in the area with a note-book, noting issues as they came to light This was an interesting experience, as it emerged that this group of 12 year olds held similar views to those of adults in the area, viewing teenagers as troublesome and responsible for all the litter, graffiti and vandalism. it appeared that teenagers were to be feared! After the meetings, the group were happy to stay and talk informally about themselves and their experiences. This gave me an opportunity to begin to challenge their somewhat negative attitudes towards teenagers. Would they also expect to be feared when they themselves became teenagers in the very near future? How would they feel about being labelled ‘troublesome’ and being viewed in negative terms by others? Gradually, the group members began to realise that they might also face negative stereotyping, as they become teenagers. The group also raised other issues – Friendships, relationships between boys and girls, alcohol, drugs, bullying, dyslexia and the difficulties faced by young people who struggle to read and write were all discussed freely. One group member spoke openly about how racism had impacted on her life. To help take forward the issues affecting young people, the group enlisted the help of an Arts Tutor to work with the group on a weekly basis. The group explained what had happened on their walk-about around the area, and after exploring various options they decided to make a short film. The group aimed to encapsulate their own findings and raise issues from the wider consultation with other young people. Over the winter of 2006-2007 the group learned how to use the cameras and carry out interviews. They were also involved in editing the film and selecting and putting together the background music. The short film showed 'What It Is Like To Be A Young Person Living in the Stockethill/Cornhill Area'. (available above). The issues raised in the film highlighted the lack of activities for young people and places for them to go. They filmed the poor condition of the school football pitch, litter, graffiti and the shopping arcade. Dog fouling and the general environment were also shown. The predominance of ‘NO’ signs throughout the area - “NO FOOTBALL”, “NO GOLF”, “NO WAITING” - painted a negative image of the neighbourhood. The group of young people took their film to the local Neighbourhood Network meeting and presented it. For the first time since the Network was set up, young people were in attendance, sharing their views on the area with local residents, the police, the housing assistant, the library assistant and representatives from the two community centres and tenants groups. There was a marked change in the attitude of those present as adults realised that young people also shared similar concerns. Young people had views on graffiti, teenagers, litter, local amenities, and dog mess. They were capable of identifying issues that affected their lives and with encouragement, and support could find ways of beginning to tackle these! In addition to the filmmaking, the group began to take on other issues. Teenagers using Cornhill Community Centre in the evenings had complained about the poor decoration and lack of resources for young people. The Management Committee at the Centre were happy to approve the refurbishment of the coffee bar, making it open plan and modernising it. Young people using the Centre at the time were part of the decision making on colour schemes, selecting new kitchen units and getting rid of the old-fashioned steel shutter that served to keep people (and in particular young people!) out of the kitchen area. The group applied to Community Learning and asked for funding to install three computers in the coffee bar to make this a cyber-type facility that would be more attractive to young people. In due course funding of £3,000.was granted for this purpose. Other Community Centre groups contributed funds for a flat-screen television, music centre and DVD player. The local councillor contributed £700 from her annual discretionary budget to allow Internet access to the computers in the coffee bar. Issues raised by young people at the Neighbourhood Network group meeting led to a discussion on facilities in general for Pre 5’s and Under 12’s. The development of an Action Plan for young people was agreed by the Neighbourhood Network as being a priority. The proposal was to identify and provide costs for developing suitable indoor and outdoor facilities for young people. This would include upgrading of the football pitches and a play park behind the school and a ‘caged’ area where young people could safely play football and other games in the school playground. A planned Community Access Point is to have access/information for young people in the evenings, and Cairncry Community Centre are recommending and supporting the use of a coffee bar area by young people. This is a significant shift in the attitude of Cairncry Community Centre Management Committee who now realise the importance of access to all community facilities by teenagers. Looking back on the situation regarding the lack of facilities for young people and the negative attitude that groups and individuals held, there has been a measured shift in general attitude and a willingness to take on board the views of young people in the area. The attitudes within the Neighbourhood Network towards young people in the area were initially generally negative, and the Network saw itself as having to address the problems of their antisocial behaviour. Gradually, however, through constructive dialogue, the attitude has shifted and as well as being seen as having both a legitimate and valuable perspective on issues, young people are viewed as being able to contribute to solutions to community problems. The film produced by the young people and the feedback from the consultation they undertook served to show that young people can be active members of their community and can be entrusted to make decisions, develop the skills they need to plan for action and ultimately bring about positive change. |
'What It Is Like To Be A Young Person Living in the Stockethill/Cornhill Area'. (Short film)
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Last Modified : 12/03/2009
