Case Study

Voices Making Choices

Susan, Nicole, Ross, Nick and Chris

Voices Making Choices (VMC) are a group of looked after young people who are part of Northumberland’s Children in Care Council. They have aspirations to change things for the better for everyone in care.

VMC wanted more people to know about them and find out how to get involved. As a result of exchanging opinions and ideas in meetings, the group decided to create a short film about them to show at events or meetings with other councils or groups.

As part of their very thorough planning, they decided they would ask experienced film-maker, Michelle Fox to help them with the project. They discussed and planned their film with her and wrote their own scripts.

It was a fantastic day of filming. Everyone was so enthusiastic about the project. Even though one member of the group had to leave early, the rest of the young people did really well to take on extra responsibilities and the film-making went really well. The young people were able to improvise with the script and add their own humour to parts of the film. On top of this, they had the opportunity to experience using the video camera and sound boom! Michelle also explained to them some of the processes involved in the editing. Everyone had a great time.

The group thoroughly enjoyed being involved from the beginning to the end of the project. In October the young people showed the film for the first time to around 300 people at a celebration event. Through this, over 100 young people got to know a lot more about the group, what they do and how to get involved. One of the panel members also went to the event and after watching the film, he was very impressed saying, “I feel the group have honoured their commitments to the panel and that the Keyfund money has been used very well to help advertise a very worthwhile group. I believe this will help recruit new members and give the group a higher profile.”

Robin, VMC’s Keyfund facilitator, told us that the young people successfully adapted a new approach to get their messages across by creating a film about the group and that Keyfund, “provided the help and support to get VMC’s ideas in motion”.

He told us also how well the group worked together, “They are from different age groups and have very different personalities, yet they worked together really well during the initial planning and throughout the project”. He added, “This was a great initiative where they learned many skills individually and together as a team. They learned also to understand others better, to improve working with one another and to offer each other emotional and motivational support.”

Robin is very pleased to see what the young people have achieved, “This sort of project takes a lot of perseverance and I have definitely seen them learning a great deal. While it is fantastic to see them develop different skills, it is also great to see them gain self worth and pride.”

As a result of the first film screening, more people are becoming aware of VMC and there has been an increase in enquiries from young people and staff. The film has also become part of the training material for foster carers, residential carers and social care staff. The film will next be screened as part of a show reel at the Northumberland’s Finest Awards evening in January!

These young people are now really fired up and have already started discussing new ideas for their stage 2 project!