The Neighbourhood Plan Summer School 2021

Taking place in early August 2021, the My Neighbourhood Summer School was a free week-long summer school for young people aged 9-12 local to the Burmantofts, Lincoln Green and Mabgate neighbourhoods.

The fun-filled week involved activities such as pottery, photography, gardening, zine making and sound and video workshops. Each activity was ran by local residents and artists, designed to encourage important conversations about the neighbourhoods and communities we live in.

Hosted by East Street Arts, at Patrick Studios in Mabgate, and funded by Haribo Community Fund, Summer School formed part of East Street Arts engagement and consultation strategy for The
Neighbourhood Plan; a 3-year project between Leeds City Council planning divisions, local residents, businesses, and East Street Arts, to establish and support a Mabgate, Lincoln Green and Burmantofts Neighbourhood Forum.

The Summer School was a chance to work with local young people and discuss with them the changes they would like to see in their neighbourhood. This was important to us as Forum Members must be 18+, therefore this can exclude the voices of younger generations.

Through activities like clay-sculpting, recording videos with green screen technology, games, gardening, photography, zine-making, map-making and language exchanges we began to understand what changes the young people wanted to see in their neighbourhood, as well as what they loved about where they live and what makes their neighbourhood a home. These activities were made possible with the support of artists, facilitators and local organisations like Matilya Njau, Hannah Platt, Toni-Dee Paul, Sable Radio, Burmantofts Senior Action, our Forum members and Leeds City Council.

The Summer School concluded with a public open-day on a Saturday morning, attended by the
young people and their families, community members, Forum members, and key stakeholders involved in the development of the area, to showcase the activities and artwork the young people had created.

And we have some very exciting news…My Neighbourhood Plan Summer School is returning THIS summer! Find out more and book your place here.

You can also read the full Summer School Evaluation report here, and check out the Summer School Zine below.

  • Gardening Workshop
  • Photo of a young person from the back, taking a photo of a brightly coloured graffiti wall on an IPad.
    Photography Walk around the local neighbourhood
  • Young people sat on the floor surrounding a large piece of white paper. They are all writing their thoughts on what they would change about their local neighbourhood.
    Planning session with Toni Dee
  • Two young people sat at a table scattered with pens and papers, discussing what the like and what they would change about their neighbourhood/
    Young people discussing what they would change about their neighbourhood (Photo Credit: Sable)
  • A circle of young people discussing the changes they would make to their neighbourhood with Toni Dee
    Discussing neighbourhood changes with Toni (Photo Credit: Sable)
  • Toni Dee writes down the thoughts of the young people on a sheet titled 'Our Changes'
    'Our Changes' (Photo Credit: Sable)
  • Burmantofts Senior Action residents are sat around a table mingled with the young people. They are sculpting things they would add to their neighbourhood with clay.
    Burmantofts Senior Action join the Summer School for clay-sculpting (Photo Credit: Sable)
  • Zine Making at the NP Summer School
    Zine Making

Other things!