Youth In Action Project

Here's a few of the many wonderfully energetic photos taken by Zvonko Kracun of this summer's Youth in Action project at Allanton House.  I've been involved in doing press, managing the blog http://youthinactionallanton2011.blogspot.com/ and creating further materials to promote the project, and it's been, quite honestly, a blast.

The World Peace Sanctuary at Allanton provided an unforgettable week of cultural activity for 14 young Italians and 13 young Scots.  The young people have worked intensively together on a British Council and European Commission funded Youth In Action Project called 'Exploring Stories of Cultural Integration'.  “Allanton was an amazing experience, I’m missing you all so much”, as one young blogger wrote afterwards.

The project aimed to give these young people - who were aged from 16 to 24 years old, and who come from very varied backgrounds, and who mostly didn’t share a language – a real experience of a different culture, and of reaching across those barriers.

However, during their week at Allanton, the young people also had the opportunity to interview people who have travelled from far and wide to settle in Dumfries and Galloway. Karlis Prahms from Latvia told the Youth in Action group how he escaped from Latvia as a child with his family, knowing that if the Soviet army caught up with them they would all be shot.  Dumfries and Galloway Multicultural Association also provided the opportunity for a question and answer session with Sitki Nalci and hosted an interview session with six migrants.

On the social side, the Italian youngsters were introduced to the Ceilidh tradition by the young Scots, and also initiated into Scottish techniques for handling barbecues in the rain.  The end of the week, however, was marked in sunshine by a Flag Ceremony in the grounds of Allanton House.

Viewpoint Voices at Knocktinkle

I'm excited to be working on this new project with the National Scenic Areas (NSAs) of Dumfries and Galloway.  Called 'Viewpoint Voices' the idea is to work with a group of people who live near one of the NSA viewpoints (there are several spaced along the Solway Coast), and develop new writing inspired by these places.

A group of enthusiastic people met with me last week in Gatehouse to begin Viewpoint Voices at Knocktinkle Viewpoint.  Knocktinkle is located just north of Gatehouse of Fleet, up in the hills.  I haven't found a photo which begins to express the sense of exposure, though I quite like this one for its huge stones in the dyke, and the lowering clouds over faraway Galloway hills.

But if you stand beside that dyke, and turn your head slowly through 180 degrees, you see all the way from a ribbon of sea, up the climbing earth, through woodland and soft glens, all the way into the mountains.  There's barely a single-track road in sight, barely a roof to be seen.  The people of Gatehouse chose this place as a favourite destination, and I can quite see why.

So I'm really looking forward to our next meeting on the evening of 19 September, when everyone will have been up to Knocktinkle, and will turn up with notes, sketches and ideas to write about this marvellous place.  And after that we'll be recording the 'Viewpoint Voices' and they can be heard in Mill on the Fleet during Day of the Region weekend on 1st and 2nd October.  Click here for more info.

Doors Open Days goes live

Cathy Agnew, Maggie Gordon of Barfil Farm
and intern Aaron Edgar cut the cake

Thrilled to announce that not only is the beautiful 2011 Doors Open Days brochure available in public places across the region, but it's now got its own webpages on the GCAT website click here. 

The theme is 'The Key of the Door' to celebrate 21 years of Doors Open Days in Scotland, and a real effort by GCAT, supported by the Holywood Trust, to improve access to the event for young people.

It's been a real pleasure working with a very capable and talented team, especially freelance writer Alison Caldwell, and of course all the folk up at The CatStrand.  And now we've just appointed Aaron Edgar as our intern.  GCAT has managed to create a short paid internship for Doors Open Days, in support of our 'youth' theme.  He's already an asset, proving he could serve up cake on paper plates at the press launch last Monday, and he can pick up two boxes of brochures at once.  Now you're talking.