Young People & Kington
The voices and views of rural young people are too often unheard, and the contributions that young people can - and want to - make in shaping and supporting the places they live are too often overlooked. The ambition of Open Arms Kington is to put young people at the heart of creating a new community hub with youth provision. By asking young people to share their experiences, views and ambitions, the commission sought to explore how they might directly shape the development and realisation of OAK’s proposal to create a new community space for all.
In 2021 OAK commissioned Rural Media’s Point of View (POV) to consult with young people, aged between 13 and 25, who live in and around Herefordshire’s market town of Kington.
For this commission POV consulted more than 100 young people between December 2021 and March 2022
This was a unique opportunity to learn with and about young people in and near Kington, and was designed to generate rich qualitative and quantitative findings with young people from all walks of life.
The opportunity to participate was widely promoted, supported by OAK directors, through flyers, social media and word of mouth. POV reached out to a range of local stakeholders from retailers and sports clubs to local police and schools.
Rural Media also produced a short film with young people who had participated in the consultation to capture their views and voices.
Rural Media Film
This short film is the result of Rural media’s conversations and interviews with some of the young people that live in and around Kington.
The findings of the POV youth consultation and the recommendations within this report, will be used by Open Arms Kington to continue the development of a new community space in Kington. This space will be accessible to all, including young people, and support our ambition for young people to have a direct role in shaping and running a new provision.
“A huge thank you goes out to all the young people who took the time to complete surveys and take part in interviews”