A Cultural Strategy for Shropshire was produced after consultation with local people and organisations.
The Council, which produced the strategy, felt that the views of young people were under-represented in the document. To do something about that, we have worked with the local Young People’s Speak Out Group and Shropshire MYPs (members of the UK Youth Parliament) to produce a Young People’s Cultural Strategy.
The young people put a lot of work into thinking up how to produce the strategy – we were always anxious that they drove the agenda on this, with support from the Council's Cultural Services and Youth Service. We started the process with a weekend residential at which the young people explored the issues raised in the existing (adult) Cultural Strategy and responded to them. We used drama, role play and a number of games to stimulate discussion and ideas.
The Young People then decided that they wanted the new strategy to be in the form of a magazine designed by young people and for young people, so we are now working with the Rural Media Company to design and produce a magazine about Shropshire’s culture and what it’s like to live here from young people’s perspective. In workshops over the summer the young people learned journalism, design and photography skills from 3 supporting artists and launched the magazine in Local Democracy Week in October 2004.
A copy of 'So Get This' is available for download on this page.