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Background This story goes back a bit, to February 2003, and it's a tale of how a half-term, video workshop with a focus on the environment took some of the participants all the way to the House of Commons. Read on to find out more:Enviro-workshop
Chipping Norton Youth Centre is a weekly event held in the comprehensive school on Thursday night for years 9 and above, and on fridays for years 6-8. Usually at a youth centre session we have a cafe, music, pool and meet people and hang out. But on Feb 21 we did something a bit different. With the help of Katharine Nathan, Matt Smith and Aimee Evans we had an Enviro-workshop. The topics for the day were Sustainability - what is it? and, How do young people feel about the environment? To start off there were just three young people there; Tom, Shane and Chris. But as the day wore on, more people turned up and joined in and in the end about fifteen people were involved.
At the beginning, before too many people turned up, (and during setting up the camera) we had a discussion about Fair Trade where we turned a play kitchen into a fair trade kitchen where we could put ordinary chocolate into a microwave and make fair trade chocolate -- not really! But we did find out stuff about Fair Trade which is where people set up organisations to give people producing food in the third world a better deal, so they don't get ripped off by big companies.
After some more people had turned up we split into groups. One group talked about what goes into our rubbish bins and how we could recycle to reduce waste. The other group talked about the wealth of the world and who has it and whether that's fair. During lunch some people went out to the shops, and those who stayed debated about the war in Iraq.
After lunch a lot more people turned up, and we set up a wormery for the Youth Centre. Unfortunately we had to abandon the wormery after somebody put cheese in it which went mouldy! The worms were fine, though and were released into Matt's compost heap. Then we went out into Chipping Norton to interview the public about their views on Chippy, the environment and the sustainability of the area for the future. We talked to about fifteen different people and got back some interesting answers, as well as some silly ones. We asked people:
Then we went back to the Ace Centre and watched the videos of people being interviewed. Then Matt interviewed all the young people who took part, including Katharine, about how the day had been and about what we'd learned, and whether they'd like to do anything similar in the future.
It was good to get a different range of opinions from people young and old. It was good to voice our opinions about the environment without adults telling us what to think, and we enjoyed the freedom to take the camera out into the city. About a week after the workshop, we came to Macclesfield House where we have created our own webpage, took our own digital-photos, and designed our very own logos!!!!!!!!! (see below)
What happened next... Next there was a bit of editing and production, making the web-pages and editing the video. And naturally, the young people involved wanted everyone to know what they had been up to, so plenty of people got sent links and invited to see the finished video. The next we heard was ...
Green Apple Winners!
Back in February 2003, young people at Chipping Norton Youth Centre took part in an Enviro-workshop Day, using video, information and activities to look at sustainability, fair trade, recycling and other issues. Later on, the work was nominated for a Green Apple Award (national environmental awards) and, in November, Chris Mason, Shane Newman and Tom Drinkwater, three young people who had been key to the success of the Enviro-workshop (they also wrote the report about it for Spired.com) went to London, to find out if they'd been successful in winning an award. They arrived at the Houses of Parliament at noon: Shane: We had a quick look outside the entry because it was a little scary, the thought of walking in the entry with all the police around us with guns on them. We had an hour before going to the Houses of Parliament so we went on a walk around near the London Eye. Tom: Seeing the time we walked back to the House of Commons. Everywhere was security, with all out belongings being scanned, just like at an airport. We then made our way along the mazy corridors ... Shane: When we were walking up to to the big doors thinking we were smart, well, we thought we were, but in front and behind of us were a load of women and men dressed in lounge suits, a lot smarter than us, but mind you, there were no students apart from me, Tom and Chris. Tom: In fact, we were the youngest people there. Shane: Three top men were making their speeches about the Green Apple Award, meanwhile Tom and Chris were digging into the food that the waiters were bringing around (they didn't leave their habits at home). Half an hour had gone by, people going up to collect their awards from the few awards that were there. Me, Tom and Chris were speaking quietly together, saying, "I don't think we are going to win an award". Finally, a 3rd place award was was called out for Oxfordshire, and me, Tom and Chris looked at each other and said "lads, I think that's us..." Tom and Chris went up to collect the award as I was too nervous to go up. The presenter said to the three of us, "Keep up with the good work, because look what you have achieved now, at this age. Hope to see you again." We were really surprised, and happy to collect a Green Apple trophy. After they had finished giving out all the awards we had a chance to speak to other groups of people and find out what they had done to win their awards. People from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and many more places. Tom: After grabbing some snacks off of the canapés and taking some House of Commons memorabilia we left. Matt was watching a debate, so we went up and watched it for about 10 minutes, which was interesting to say the least. Then we went to the (London) Aquarium which was absolutely awesome, seeing the sharks and touching the rays was amazing. On our way out we found an arcade with bowling and dodgems so me and Shane bowled for about half an hour. When we got out darkness had drawn in, and we decided to go on the (London) Eye, which was brilliant, to see the whole of London at night, just after fireworks night.
Shane: On the London Eye, me, Matt, Chris and Tom had a cracking picture taken, it was really good. This is a day to remember, it was interesting and a fun day. You had to be there (much better than it sounds in my writing) but this day would not have happened if Matt and Katharine didn't give up the time to take us, and the time they spent on the workshops and organisation and build up to the day – thanks. Tom: It was a really great day and I would gladly do it again, so thankyou Matt and Katharine for a fantastic day out and an opportunity to win an award that no other young people on earth have had the chance to win!
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Looking through the video; this is Matt talking about the unequal
division of resources and wealth in the world.
NEWSFLASH! This project has now won a National Bronze 
