Connecting disadvantaged young people with landscape through arts

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The proposed project follows on from the successful Stories2Connect (S2C) project which worked in participatory ways with disadvantaged children and young people to create stories based on their lived experiences, told through a range of co-designed story-telling digital machines for different audiences. S2C was shortlisted for the AHRC-Wellcome Health Humanities Medal 2018, and won a prize of £10,000 from EPSRC to create a film about the impact and engagement of the project. We created 50 stories and designed and produced five artefacts to access stories through physical interaction and a mobile phone app. In addition, 43 of the stories have been printed as storybooks, and 18 have been created as films on the project website. The combination of stories and digital artefacts has been significant in creating a whole new genre/method/means of story-telling, involving elements of touch, space, movement, enhancing the sensual and physical experience and thereby adding to the knowledge exchange process.This follow-on funding will be used to engage with new audiences and new themes of work by collaborating with organisations encountered during and since the project, specifically with the Rusland Horizons Trust, Art Gene, Blackpool Council, the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, environmental charities and professional storytellers. These connections link with a theme that developed, about young people's participation in the appreciation and uses of their natural environment. Our participatory methodology will be applied in developing and using the new resources and will lead to co-produced artistic outputs focused on contributing young people's perspectives to decision-making about landscape. Our evaluation interviews and feedback from publics and professionals who have accessed the outputs have demonstrated the significance of the project for improving engagement, self-esteem, confidence, resilience and attainment for the disadvantaged young people who have been involved. As a team, the young people and the academics therefore intend to create a means of enabling other groups to develop their own stories and bespoke story-telling devices. Case studies in the North West will take place in Barrow-in-Furness, Blackpool, and the Rusland Valley. These three areas are all in NW England, rich in natural landscapes and close to areas of high deprivation. Disadvantaged young people from urban areas close to these natural environments do not necessarily benefit from them as much as those who visit from further afield. This means that the local populations are marginalised in any decisions that are made about their own landscapes. Our focus on disadvantaged/disabled children and young people is of particular importance as their voices are the least likely to be heard. We are collaborating with a range of community groups to work with their aims of enhancing children's appreciation and understanding of the countryside and on improving adults' understanding of children and young people's needs within natural environments. For example, RHT will conduct environmental workshops with groups from schools in urban areas relatively close to the Rusland Heritage area of the Lake District. Using collaborative methods for writing, as developed in S2C and described in a co-authored practitioner guide (Satchwell et al 2018), the SCBWI volunteers and local community volunteers will help the young people to co-create stories, poems and songs.Young people will benefit from participating and from having their perspectives captured and conveyed to influential stakeholders.Those stakeholders will benefit from recognising and including perspectives from children and young people in maintaining and creating landscapes. The general public will gain greater understanding of children and young people and landscapes which take them into account.The environment will benefit from greater care and attention from those who use it.