The Young Roots Scheme is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It helps local organisations involve young people in the heritage of the United Kingdom.
Stockton Youth Service was successful in obtaining HL funds for a project in which young people from Stockton -on-Tees are investigating and celebrating the history of River Tees from its source, all the way down to where it enters the sea. Stockton has a long history associated with the river, from shipbuilding and rope making to more recently tourism and sport. The River Tees has close links with the chemical industries at Wilton and Billingham and also much smaller businesses and communities higher up the Dales. The river is the lifeblood of the Tees Valley. The young people are visiting various locations and recording their findings to produce a resource which others can access.
The project got underway on 23rd April 2007 with a meeting at Chapel Road Youth Centre to prepare the group for a residential at Carlton Outdoor Centre near Thirsk the following weekend. 18 young people from the Borough of Stockton enjoyed a full programme of activties which included a rope course and kayaking. Every participant was enrolled onto the REAL Award. The resource will be delivered by the group to other community groups in Stockton-on-Tees towards the end of the project in December 2007. We are working in partnership with other departments of Stockton Borough Council as well as Tees Valley Wildlife Trust and local history groups.
In conjunction with Stockton Borough Council Youth Service, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust(TVWT) arranged for five young pople to complete a high level traverse of the Transporter Bridge. On 30th July 2007 the group crossed the bridge at a height of 180 feet above the River Tees! Representatives from TVWT then took the group on a riverside walk to Portrack Marsh. The penultimate activity of the day was an outdoor art workshop where each young person painted on canvass some of things they had seen or collected during the day. This work is a forerunner to a larger art project further on in the programme. The young people then completed the day's activity by undertaking some environmental work, which involved removing protective wire fencing to an established small copse of trees near the Tees Barrage as they were no longer under threat from small animals.
For more information regarding this project, please contact the project co-ordinator, Dave Maddison telephone number 01642 527968 or alternatively access the contact link.
