What if nobody turns up?
How do we do show someone how to use a camera?
Are we ok with having a laugh?
But all was grand! We had 21 young people with us at Eden Court over 4 days in our temporary Digi Room within the elegant Bishops Palace.
This was the first meet up of our Cashback Highlands / Scottish Government funded project which will see us deliver targeted creative activities until 2023. We work largely from referrals from our project partners - Action for Children, Highland Council Social Work and Who Cares? Scotland. Our aim is to work long term with young people who want to produce, create and make work of their own choosing with the support of the Cashback Highlands Team. Our magnificent building is one of our greatest resources, a definite mother ship, and seen by many of the people we work with as a safe place to be.
We will be hosting many more of these Next Steps projects, as well as meeting weekly with young people to facilitate what it is that they want to create. We have everything from music videos, scripts, adventure films to public art events all in the pipeline for the coming months - all of which we want you to see as they are created.
Open an image gallery
In the meantime, have a look at this short film created by Callum McArthur, who has worked with us since he was 12 on our open and previous Cashback projects and is now back on a freelance basis to document some of what we are up to.
It felt really special that the week was able to go ahead, with safety measures in place, and that the groups of young people were some of the first to use the building after months of closure. We’re so excited that the programme has launched, and for the plans we have in the coming months for more young people to get involved.
What I love about our Cashback program is there is no set outcome or goal for the individual days. No one is forced to do anything they don’t want to do, yet with this passionate and keen group, we were still able to produce short films, original music, photographs and a wealth of Tictoks, all made and created from their own ideas and concepts. The best thing in these uncertain times was being able to say these opportunities aren’t just a one off, and offer them future sessions, meet ups and creative opportunities with us at Eden Court. Knowing there are opportunities to build long term relationships with our partner organisations and more importantly, the young people they represent. This really makes me feel proud to be working as part of the Cashback team, and it is a real privilege to be supporting these young people on their journeys ahead
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