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Project 3 of 3 of Podcasting for Positive Change - Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund

The Inclusion Network CIC in Bootle, Merseyside.

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Our third project involved speaking to young people about their Youth Club, and other issues that impact on young people. 

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The third of the three Lottery funded projects started in April 2024. We have now completed all seven sessions as of June 2024 with The Inclusion Network (TIN) CIC. The Inclusion Network is a Youth and Community Centre in a deprived area of the UK that offers services to different members of the community, but with a focus on young people. There are sessions throughout the week. On a Tuesday Night there is a youth club that is open from 5 to 7 for young people in primary and secondary school education. We have had ten young people come to sessions to talk about why they like coming to The Inclusion Network, and to talk about the different activities they do there. Several of the students are neurodiverse and the students come from a range of backgrounds. The students have helped with script writing, have interviewed each other and the staff, and have picked up good technical skills and confidence across the three sessions. The progress we have seen on the mic over the course has been very encouraging and shows the natural ability of the young people.

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We have also engaged in active citizenship by talking about their lived experiences: speaking about issues such as social media, school and education, and friendship groups.

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We have produced three podcasts as part of this course and issued certificates during the celebration to all participants highlighting achievements and skills. The podcasts will be shared with participants, put on the websites of North and South CIC and The Inclusion Network, and will be passed on to the National Lottery funders.  

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Some of the students have expressed a desire to continue their own short podcast at The Inclusion Network moving forward and North and South has given them information and skills to help them achieve this, in liaison with the staff at The Inclusion Network. They will talk about the lates news at TIN and will speak about other issues affecting young people, like the ones discussed in the podcasts we did on this course. To help us with episode two the participants spoke to elder family members about their memories of youth and having holidays and spare time before mobile phones. Their answers were recorded using mobile phones and brought into the following session. It was good to focus on what might be deemed more positive use of phone technology and encourage research and intergenerational links.

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During our final celebration and presentation session we did a review podcast. The participants said they enjoyed talking about issues on the course that they would not normally speak about e.g. – peer pressure and vaping, analysis of school, hypothetical parenting situations, feelings and emotions. They also referred to how their self-esteem, social skills and confidence developed across the course. One mentioned how she had used the skills learned to help her with her Tic Toc podcasting and creation. The students also mentioned how their technical skills had been developed and how much they liked the idea of being recorded and having their opinions on key matters valued. The students also acknowledged the challenges they had faced such as feeling overwhelmed when they saw the equipment and how speaking out loud and being recorded was quite intimidating at first. Their advice to others was to overcome these anxieties and get stuck in!

 

We did a Survey Monkey with participants through their parents and carers, with responses coming in at 7 – 8 out of 10 on average in terms of encouraging podcast creation and learning the key skills. This was also reflected in the desire of some of the group to do their own podcast moving forward, about The Inclusion Network. One student also said that the course had made them, ‘feel more able to get involved in social environments, ‘ which tallied with others who said that their confidence was boosted. One also added that the course had helped with ‘social anxiety.’ This was the key skill developed that was identified by participants. They also said that getting involved in discussions and answering questions was a challenge at first, that they had to get used to, but enjoyed doing. Respondents also said the course was run very well and had developed their confidence. All agreed that they had enjoyed giving their opinions and telling their stories. There were no improvements suggested.

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