Merry Christmas!

Dear friends,

Christmas is almost upon us. We’ve had a busy year and we’ve been privileged to be involved in lots of exciting projects.

Our BBC Children in Need funded project - ‘YOS Media Matters’ - is into its second year, and we’re seeing fantastic things with the young guys at the Youth Offending Service. In the New Year we’ll expand this project into the Young Offenders Insitution at Parc Prison, working with more young people on art, music and film projects. We’re hoping next summer to exhibit some of their work in the centre of Cardiff.

‘16-60: A Woman’s Voice’ was our first creative heritage project, and it was a lot of fun. You can read more about it elsewhere on the blog. We’re already dreaming up ideas for another youth heritage project in partnership with Cardiff Story Museum and the Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots programme.

This year we painted miles of murals (well it felt like it anyway)… from a primary school in Rumney to a care home in Caerphilly and a high school in Splott… and more. Over the summer we worked with hundreds of community members to paint 3 murals next to busy roads in Ely. More community murals are planned for 2014.

In the autumn we began a partnership with EMTAS to deliver a transition project with one very diverse year group over 3 years. The team delivers creative workshops 4 times a term, developing trust, teamwork, integration and social and emotional skills. We are excited about the impact this project will enable us to have on Adamsdown Primary and Willows High school over the next 3 years.

This has been a year of big plans for People Around Here. We have been working on a strategic plan and business plan for the next 3 years – defining our vision, crafting clear aims and developing partnerships to take us forward.

We’ll share more of these plans in the spring, and we hope you’ll partner with us to achieve more positive outcomes for more disadvantaged communities in the year ahead.

‘16-60: A Woman’s Voice’ – a huge success!

‘16-60: A Woman’s Voice’ engaged 50 young women from minority ethnic backgrounds in a creative project to explore and share the heritage of Butetown.

The girls interviewed older women from Butetown and created a documentary film. They were so inspired by the women’s stories that they went on to create more films, a song, a huge work of art and a fashion show to present what they had discovered about their heritage to the wider community.

The project has come to a close with 2 fantastic events – the launch of a month-long exhibition at Cardiff Story Museum in October with 80 people, and a fashion show at the Global Eid Extravaganza in City Hall before an audience of 500!

The girls told us that the project helped them to make new friends, grow in confidence, find out about their heritage and try new things. They certainly impressed us all. Well done to everyone involved in this fantastic project.

* Watch a film about the exhibition launch event here *

– thanks to media student Catrin Elen Rees for sharing the film with us.

16-60: A Woman's Voice Exhibition Launch

Launch event THIS SATURDAY

It's almost here... the launch event of our exhibition at Cardiff Story Museum... 
'16-60: A Woman's Voice'.

The culmination of 1 year of interviews, film making, creativity and hard work from a talented group of girls in Butetown.

Film premiere, fashion show, music and art presentations and refreshments. 

Tell everyone, bring your friends and family! See you there... 6pm Saturday October 5th.

Funded by Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots Programme.
In Partnership with Cardiff Story Museum and Cardiff Youth Service. 

Ely bridge murals

We've just completed a big CAN DO mural project... in a heatwave!

We have been working with community members, schools and youth groups in the Ely and Fairwater area, creating 3 murals to brighten up Ely bridge.

The murals celebrate vibrant community life and promote partnership working across the local communities. There is a strong theme of ‘connection’ in the designs, which feature jigsaw pieces, zips and buttons, as well as local landmarks such as the river and railway line. The collaborative project developed over 9 months in a partnership between Communities First (ACE), South Wales Police, four local schools, Cardiff Youth Service, Network Rail and a number of local community groups. We were delighted to have lots of volunteers from the surrounding area helping us paint the bridge... they did a great job!

Dave Horton, Deputy Cluster Manager for Communities First Cardiff West, said: "Recent years have seen an explosion of community led activity in Ely, Caerau, Fairwater, and surrounding areas.  Despite negative reputations, the area has huge community spirit and is an exciting and vibrant area of the city.  This project has been an excellent opportunity for local people to work together and express this positivity visually. We have really enjoyed being a part of this celebration of our community."  Dave Horton, ACE (Action in Caerau & Ely)

Cardiff Council Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Highways, Traffic and Transportation, Cllr Ralph Cook, said: “This has been a great project that has helped to inspire the community both young and the young at heart. The Mural has helped to brighten up the area and brought many community groups together over the last few weeks. I am delighted that Cardiff Council supported the scheme.”

The volunteer painters were happy to see their photo in the South Wales Echo on Wednesday, and we hope the colourful murals will be spotted in other local media over the coming weeks. In the meantime, there are plenty more pictures on our Facebook page. 

A big thank you all those who funded the project (Tidy Towns, Cardiff Youth Service, Network Rail, ACE and SPICE), South Wales Police, Cardiff Council, and the Councillors of Ely, Caerau, Fairwater and Canton for their support of the project.

On the radio

People Around Here is busier than a busy bee these days with CAN DO mural projects across Cardiff. Check back on the blog over the next month to see the results!

About 2 months ago, Becky was on Radio Cardiff chatting about our heritage project in Butetown - '16-60: A Woman's Voice'. Listen online by following this link - People Around Here is up first on this great show by Diverse Cymru. The project in Butetown is still going strong - every Wednesday our group of girls is working hard on costumes, music, films and artwork for our end of project presentations, which will take place in October and November.

2013: The journey so far...

Greenway Primary school mural

Bill has been working with a group of pupils, including some traveller children, to design a mural for the school entrance. The jigsaw-inspired mural reads ‘Greenway Together’. The pupils came up with some great ideas and really enjoyed painting the boards together.

YOS Media Matters

The young people in the ISS programme at Cardiff Youth Offending Service have been working hard on a series of short films expressing their own experiences of the youth justice system. They have been involved in every step of film production from planning, storyboarding and creating background music to acting, filming and editing. All of the young people have gained confidence and developed media and communication skills in the process.

16-60: A Woman’s Voice

We’ve got to know a fantastic group of girls in Butetown since October. They have been inspired by interviewing older ladies about how the area has changed through the decades, and each one has created their own short film in response. They’re now getting stuck into some creative projects in art, fashion and film. We’re delighted to be part of the ‘girls only’ provision at the new Butetown Youth Pavillion… we’re particularly thankful for the 4 new iMacs in the art room!

Thanks also to our volunteers Donna and Alida for their help in the project.

What's next? 

CAN DO

We’ve got mural projects coming up at Willows High school in Splott and also in 4 locations in Ely and Caerau this summer, involving a range of local community groups, schools and youth centres. Watch this space for news on those!

Transition Project with Families First

In partnership with EMTAS, we will be delivering a 3-year transition project Adamsdown Primary school. We’ll be engaging a group of pupils in creative activity days from their first term in year 5 until their last term as year 7 pupils at Willows High school. Our aim is to increase their attendance and achievement in the long term and equip them to thrive in the transition to high school.

Planning ahead…

People Around Here has been devising a strategic plan for the next 3 years. We’ve got lots of big ideas and we’re getting excited about delivering more projects with our many partners to benefit more disadvantaged people in Cardiff. More details will be posted on the blog as we keep moving forward.