Western Isles Groups
The Children’s Parliament has had a long term relationship with children, families and services in the islands of Barra, Eriskay, Benbecula, South Uist and North Uist. We profile some of that work here.
Starting in 2007, one of our first community programmes brought children from schools across the islands to start their journey with us.
Highlights from our work include:
The Youth Ambassadors programme – a peer education project
With support from The Big Lottery’s Young People’s Fund, our original community programme was extended by a further three years, to create a peer education project where youth ambassadors were recruited to design and deliver workshops about children’s human rights to children across the southern isles and three training sessions for teachers. School-based workshops and an islands-wide children’s rights fayre in summer of 2010 which was enjoyed by 300 local children, further embedding our long standing relationships with the communities of these islands.
Watch this DVD on the left
Pouring Rain Project – the project climax
The final year of our Youth Ambassadors project centred around building self confidence and self esteem in teenagers through engaging with the outdoors. This positive learning experience promoted responsibility and leadership skills in teenagers. In June 2011, Nunton Steadings in Benbecula hosted the Pouring Rain event – the open day and week-long exhibition gave Youth Ambassadors the opportunity to show their community the projects they had undertaken through the year. Read an outline of The Pouring Rain Project HERE
Knowing Ways Conference – North Edinburgh Arts, September 2011
Thanks to grants from NHS Western Isles and Western Isles Education Dept., two Youth Ambassadors were able to participate in the Knowing Ways Conference in Edinburgh. At a one-hour session at this international event, the two Youth Ambassadors delivered elements of the one-day workshop that they and their peers have developed and delivered to schools, teachers and other professionals in the Western Isles. Feedback from the well-attended session was very positive and a report will be published in October.
The Mural Project
Capturing MCPs views of their journey and issues which affect childhood: See images of the mural in our Western Isles GALLERY
Watch a DVD about the work on the left
IdentiPix
This project extended our work, engaging children in Harris and Lewis with a project which used the Children’s Parliament theme Who We Are to reflect on ideas of identity and belonging while learning about children’s human rights. See images from the IndentiPix project in our Western Isles GALLERY
Watch the IdentiPix DVD on the left
