Moray Adult Literacies Partnership

X-Press Project

As the name suggests this Project aims to give young people the opportunity to communicate and express themselves while addressing literacies issues and developing multi-media skills and techniques. The Project's work is strongly influenced by the theories of David Warlick who argues that learners require a new set of literacies skills in the 21st century and that IT skills form an integral part of this.

MALP aims to work with young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five years who are identified and referred to them by local youth agencies. The project is based in Moray College but operates within a rural area and has identified four main partner agencies:

• Moray Community Learning and Development Service
• Moray College
• Moray Youth Start
• Dialogue Youth

Update on the X-press project – December 2006

Twelve weeks before the X-press project was to be completed, it would have been difficult to imagine writing about it in terms of success. However, initial difficulties in identifying and engaging with groups of young people were finally overcome and there were positive outcomes for all involved.

One contributor to final success was that the resulting short time scale meant the project had to be quite intensive and our experience was that this worked well for our two groups of young adults. The Lhanbryde group met for 10 sessions, once per week. The loan of laptops for the duration of the project encouraged and enabled writing at home. They also met with a graphic designer from a printing company to discuss the final production of their work. This group met in their Village Hall; chosen by the young women as convenient and familiar and allowed for a crèche for their children, and times were arranged to fit with family commitments. A youth literacies tutor worked on supporting the written word while the specialist “creative” tutor introduced creative writing and critical awareness when looking at books. Initially the focus was on creativity and gaining confidence in writing their ideas and thoughts down. Participants produced their own writing and worked together to create illustrations. As the group developed, their confidence in their own skills grew, making it easier for them to support and help each other in a positive way. Towards the end of the project, they were working well as a team. Those who had finished their work happily helped those who had not. They shared proof reading, creating illustrations, discussed ideas, listened to other’s opinions, and encouraged each other when the timescale seemed impossible to meet.

Posters and books produced through X-press have since been used in schools and distributed through the youth work network in Moray - and even displayed in the local pub. The majority of books were written for children but also includes poetry written mainly about families and a “real life – true story” book of being “13 and Pregnant”. Meanwhile, one of the MAP members wrote and produced a powerful film on his experiences of homelessness. He worked closely with a multi-media tutor once he had his story down on paper. This film has been used as an awareness-raising tool in the Council’s Housing Department and within other agencies as well as at conferences and seminars. Furthermore, a launch created an opportunity for participants to present their work orally as well as on paper.

The impact on learners, of having what they have written and produced being seen as important enough to be distributed to others and fed into schools, the local council and other agencies, was powerful. As young mothers, the Lhanbryde group all produced and dedicated something special for their own children. All participants are justifiably proud of their work and the ways in which their writing has extended beyond the walls of the Village Hall and community centres where they met. Fifteen months on after the end of the To the Max funding some, but not all, are involved in learning. Three out of the eight are attending College, some have plans for the future, particularly when their children are older, and others are no longer engaged. Whatever, all say that their involvement with X-press was positive, fun, gave them new skills and made a difference to their confidence in using literacy.

Successful outcomes for MALP are that it has given us a clear focus on youth literacies, it highlighted the difficulties of attracting this age group, the need to change our ways of engaging both with agencies and directly with young adults and to spend more time in raising awareness. We also learned lessons about short, time limited projects being attractive to this age group, of how ICT can enhance literacies learning and the benefits “end-products” such as books or films can bring, not only as “hooks” into learning but also as proof for learners of what they can, and have achieved.

Althea Forbes
19 December 2006

Next >