Peshkar has received £49,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project, Where are you from - our teenage years?” which will run in Oldham and Burnley from January until December 2015 supported by Great Places Housing and led by volunteers from the local communities, across generations the project teenage experiences throughout the decades of people living in Oldham and Burnley with specific focus on White British and South Asian communities.
This innovative project will work closely with a range of culturally and age specific stakeholder organisations and use our multi platform arts engagement approach to enable disengaged young people to learn about oral history, record the changing experiences of teenagers within transient communities, what heritage means to individuals and the impact of cultural changes on the social make up of these towns. There will be a range of curating and exhibiting opportunities and a legacy to enable future teenage involvement as well.
We will work with teenagers now living in Oldham and Burnley who will collect these experiences from older generations in the form of oral history, film, photography and copies of historical artefacts. The oldest person will be aged up to 100; the project will look at the teenage experience from 1927 - present day. This will cover a fascinating history and will reveal stories from people living in these Northern Mill towns as a teenager throughout these decades but will also naturally explore and compare peoples stories from south Asian countries of origin such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and India as the stories of migration unfold.
It will form a fascinating understanding of life as a teenager in different ages, different communities, different towns and different countries and will look at how these experiences have woven together to create the present day Burnley and Oldham that now provides the backdrop for our current teenagers’ experiences.
Focusing the project on these memorable and notorious years will provide a fascinating, moving and diverse collection of experiences that will be a fun and relevant way to engage people of all ages in this educational and artistic heritage project.
It will explore the changing landscape of Oldham and Burnley and encourage people to embrace and
understand how a wide range of cultures have merged to create the towns of today. This project will look at the history and heritage of Oldham and Burnley and encourage its residents to really explore the notion:
Commenting on the award, Jim Johnson, Director of Peshkar said: “We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund are confident the project will support people of all ages and experiences to be active citizens with pride in their Burnley and Oldham communities. Where are you from? Interestingly, will also explore the legacy that the current teenage generation are leaving behind for future generations”
Shoab Akhtar, Great Communities manager at Great places Housing Group said: “We’re thrilled to be part of this exciting project. Great Places’ Great Communities team is committed to setting up new initiatives to meet the needs of Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) communities in our neighbourhoods. This project will bring together young and old to celebrate their heritage in such a diverse area.”
Saj Karim MEP, a supporter of Peshkar’s work said “I was pleased to meet Jim and David in the European Parliament and learn about this fascinating project that will be so beneficial to my constituents, whatever their cultures and background, in Oldham and Burnley.”
Explaining the importance of the HLF support, the head of the HLF in the North West, Sara Hilton, said: “This project will not only capture vital memories from a fascinating range of periods and places, but will equip young people with valuable skills and enable different generations to understand each other better. We are delighted to support this project.”
