Young Roots
A ‘peer group’ of seven young people aged 16–19 regularly met at Headliners, a charity working with disadvantaged young people using journalism as a tool for learning. They drew on activities in our guidance to discuss their heritage, before focusing on a subject they found representative of culture and identity in the North East, the Geordie dialect. Staff supported the peer group to manage the project, including deciding workshop content, identifying partners and monitoring budgets and progress.
Headliners worked with six other youth organisations to engage 75 more young people to explore and interpret the dialect. The young people received training in media skills by Headliners. Newcastle City Library, the main heritage partner, delivered a series of workshops, training participants in archive research and oral history interviewing skills. Young people also visited museums and other heritage sites.
Participants traced words back as far as Anglo-Saxon times, and looked at more recent influences on the language of Hollywood, TV and immigration. Working in eight groups, they recorded interviews and produced two photography exhibitions shown across Newcastle, as well as DVDs, podcasts and a comic strip. They reviewed the British Library’s ‘Evolving English’ exhibition when it toured to Newcastle and wrote a song celebrating the Geordie accent.