Young people invited to share their stories this weekend showing Gosport is where kindness lives
The free event, part of the Good in Gosport initiative, will run at Your Space Gosport with all materials provided
Young people in Gosport are being invited to a special free event this weekend as part of an initiative to celebrate their town.
Good in Gosport: Where Kindness Lives was launched earlier this month as an antidote to the tension and high feelings running in the community after it unwittingly found itself caught up in a storm of anti-migrant protests. It is encouraging young people to use their creative skills to tell a joyful story about their town.
On Saturday, Good in Gosport will be basing itself in Your Space Gosport, High Street, and inviting children and young people to share their tales of kindness, friendship, belonging and hope. They will be encouraged to be creative, write a story, poem or song or craft an image that explains the positivity they feel in Gosport.
The free event will run from 10am to noon with all materials provided, including arts and crafts equipment.
Kirsty Robertson, CEO of Motiv8 and Co-Chair of Gosport Local Children’s Partnership, said: ‘Over recent months, our young people have been exposed to some difficult messages about their community. But when we actually listen to them, they tell us so much that is positive about Gosport so we want them to fill our town with their words, pictures, photographs, music and ideas and remind all of us that kindness is happening in Gosport every single day.’
Karen Loregan, of Your Space Gosport, said: “It is so important to engender young people’s hopes and dreams for our amazing town and build upon what they already feel.”
Feelings have been running high since rumours that a boat carrying migrants collected from the Channel was said to be heading to the town in September and rose when one did dock at Fort Blockhouse in October. A third anti-migrant protest by patriot groups was held at the start of this month.
Community groups have shared their concerns that recent events had left some children and young people feeling worried, intimidated and uncertain about what has been happening around them. But, despite this they remain proud of where they live.
So Good in Gosport: Where Kindness Lives was born. Led through the Gosport Local Children’s Partnership, alongside local youth charity Motiv8 and Gosport Routes, it is being supported by The News.
Other key supporters include Gosport MP Dame Caroline Dinenage, Gosport Borough Council, Incredible Edible Gosport and Oarsome Chance along with St Vincent College, Kings Academy Bay House, The Federation of Alver Valley Schools, Brune Park School and Bridgemary School.
Selected pieces created through the project will be published in The News in a special Good in Gosport: Where Kindness Lives supplement and on our website.
Following publication, the creative work will be passed to Gosport Routes, the local Arts Council England-backed Creative People and Places programme, to support the development of a community gallery. This gallery will provide an opportunity for children’s and young people’s creativity and voices to be seen and celebrated by the wider Gosport community.
To find out more about Good in Gosport: Where Kindness Lives and to get involved contact Sam Mitchell, Gosport Local Children’s Partnership Coordinator, at [email protected]