Channel 4 Learning


Channel 4 Programme Notes
Citizenship - Citizens of the World
Citizen UK
Programme 1
Kyle's building a skate park

Aims:
To raise awareness of:



Synopsis:

00.00-03.42
Hunmanby village - young people at loggerheads with local council over provision of proper skatepark. Kyle, 17, drives campaign. Five years before battled with council over youth amenities. Result - temporary skatepark, now unsafe.

03.43-07.39
Realities of campaigning - committees, procedures, constraints, community involvement, fund-raising. Have £50,000 - need further £17,000. Apply for grant. If successful can build immediately. Meantime, pressure council to keep old skatepark open. Risky!

07.40-13.24
Skateboarders discuss reactions of locals. Receive £10,000 grant. Need another £7,000. More fund-raising. Kyle helps design skatepark - caters for wide age range.

13.25-17.05
Still £2,000 short. Parents guarantee amount. Council finally agrees go-ahead - on camera. Chair wants skate park completed before he retires. Community involved - clearing land, fundraising.

17.06-24.00
Kyle's philosophy of 'boarding'. Skatepark finished ahead of time. Villagers comment on campaign and result. Young people love it. Have learned they don't have to rely on council.



Curriculum Relevance:

Major Citizenship and PSHE focus.

England & Wales Key Stage 4

Citizenship

PSHE

Northern Ireland

Learning For Life and Work Area 14-18:

Local and Global Citizenship Strand

Personal Development Strand (Including PSHE and Home Economics):

Scotland

Scottish Executive Guidance: Citizenship, PSD - middle to upper secondary stages.

Background Information:

Citizens today and tomorrow
Political, economic and social change in the UK and Europe in the 1990s brought about recognition of the value, and necessity, of young people's involvement in decision making, both in terms of their own personal and social development and in terms of benefits to communities and nations.

In the early twenty-first century this trend continues to be reflected in the increase in attempts at involving young people, consulting with them and facilitating their participation in democratic processes locally and nationally. The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, ratified by the UK in 1991, gave an imperative to this movement and is reflected in recent policy and legislation.

Consultation
Consultation means listening to young people's views and giving appropriate feedback. Ideas around consultation can often be restricted to mechanisms that bring young people's views to adult-led initiatives resulting in processes that are essentially reactive, with power remaining in the hands of the adults. In this situation young people are involved but contribute from the outside. This may influence what happens but without transfer of power and responsibility.

Participation
Participation refers to young people taking an active part in a project or process as key contributors. This has the potential to allow them to be proactive in shaping projects and determining processes, which in itself is empowering. Participation can vary by degrees. Projects can be devised, planned, and executed entirely by young people or with a degree of adult support, or they might be adult-led in a way that allows young people to make a significant contribution in terms of discussion and implementation.

Hierarchy of participation
Young people's involvement in society has been described as a hierarchy of participation conceptualised as a ladder with tokenism on the bottom rung and projects initiated and run by young people, without adult direction, at the top. While useful in informing thinking about youth involvement, it is important to guard against the idea that projects lower down the ladder are necessarily inferior. While tokenism is completely undesirable, appropriate levels of involvement are specific to context. An initial low level of involvement may be very valuable for setting the scene for a higher level in the future.

Barriers to involvement
These take many forms. Young people themselves may lack confidence or not see the point, because they think it won't make any difference anyway. They may mistrust the motives of older people trying to involve them and have concerns about their own ability to deliver. Older people may be reluctant to give up power or have misinformed ideas about young people's behaviour, needs and ability to participate. Research stresses the importance of everyone being clear about the level of involvement, the process, the outcomes and the nature of feedback.



Activities:

Before viewing

Depending on context, teachers may wish to use the list below to focus viewing and guide discussion afterwards. See outline for content and timings.

  1. Different perspectives on life in a seaside village.
  2. Campaigning for provision of a local amenity - process, emotions, result.
  3. Conflicts of interest over provision of local amenities.

After viewing

Activities - for class or small groups.

  1. Identify the different perspectives people in the film have of life in the village - positive and negative. Record on a board or large sheet of paper and discuss. Are there any perspectives not represented? What are they? What issues do they raise? What are students' reactions to life in the village generally?
  2. Produce a checklist of the different things that Kyle had to do in setting up and running the campaign. Why are they necessary? What skills did he need? How did he get these skills? How do students feel about the way he runs the campaign? What are the things that motivate him?
  3. Chart barriers to the development of the proper skate park and identify how each is resolved. What sort of risks did this involve? How were these managed? To what degree did this involve compromise? What was the nature of the compromise?

Key questions

  1. How does the campaign, and the result, benefit those taking part?
  2. How might other services in the village benefit?
  3. In what other ways might the village benefit?
  4. Might there be any negative effects?

Follow-up

Are there examples of similar campaigns to this in school, college or community? Is there a need for an amenity that might benefit from a campaign? Is there consensus about this? How could the campaign be developed strategically?

Links:

This web page contains links to other websites that are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.

http://www.youth-action.org.uk
Through participation in design, delivery and evaluation of projects, Youth Action provides young people UK-wide with real opportunities to turn ideas into actions that benefit local communities.

http://www.youthbank.org.uk
Innovative UK-wide grant-making initiative run by young people for young people. Provides small grants at local level for community projects initiated and run by young people.

http://www.youthinformation.com
Large searchable database on youth issues from love to the law.



Credits:

With thanks to:

Ordnance Survey
Duffield printers (programme 2)

Narrator: SIMON AMSTELL
Production Co-ordinator: SALLY-ANN ROBINSON
Production Manager: ROSIE PUTTEN
Title Music: BENT EAR
Sound: KEVIN WALSH
Research: JACQUI MELLOR
Dubbing Mixer: MARK WILLETT
On-line Editor: CHRIS TIMSON
Assistant Producer: NIKKI COHEN
Executive Producer: SIMON SCHOFIELD
Series directed and filmed by: CY CHADWICK
Webnotes: IAIN RAMSAY

 Produced by REAL LIFE for 4 Ventures Limited