The Heritage Hunters Evaluation Report April 2016 Original design for the Heritage Hunters Logo by John Robinson aged 14 Young Roots Heritage Hunters Report written by BillyJoe, Brian, Blake, Dominic, Daisy May, Faith, Jaide, John, Caitlin, Holly, Natasha and Savannah of the Heritage Hunters and supported by Robert Johnson, Senior Project Worker of Investing in Children.
Introduction This is our evaluation report regarding the Heritage Hunters, from the beginning to the end. We have covered all the work we have done and decided to put lots of pictures in to show the reader what we have done, because we think it will make it more interesting. The report is in activities order and provides an overview of all the work we did. In the beginning Our group originally involved 8 young people meeting together with Investing in Children CIC and Auckland Castle Trust Staff to develop ideas so we could apply to the Young Roots Heritage Lottery Fund. We put a bid in, were successful and received funding from the Heritage Lottery to support us all to work with Investing in Children CIC and Auckland Castle. One of the first things we did was to come up with a name for the group and we designed a logo. Below is a print shop design logo, which John Robinson developed all by himself! 2
Then we thought it would be good to make Durham County Council aware of our plans. We did this by meeting with Durham County Council s One Point Service. The below picture shows some of the Heritage Hunters meeting in early January 2015 to discuss and develop ideas for the year ahead with Durham County Council and Auckland Trust Staff. The Heritage Hunters then decided it would be good to set up a Mini Heritage Hunter group. Below is a picture of Five Mini heritage Hunters joining forces with the Heritage Hunters for the first meeting in March 2015. We then decided to design some hoodies for the Heritage Hunters and some T-shirts for the Mini Heritage Hunters. You can see some of us wearing them. 3
Next Steps We then decided it was time to visit the castle and find out about its history to help us with our plans to bring visitors to the castle. We did this during March and June 2015. We had 12 meetings by then. At this point we decided on planning two big family fun days later in the year as big attractions to get people to come and visit the castle. Below is a picture of our early plans. Daisy May, Natasha, BillyJoe, Charlie and Savanah discovering information about the Prince Bishop at Auckland castle. 4
Jaide, a Heritage Hunter, decides to develop her skills at handling really old objects at Auckland Castle to help her run object handling sessions. Holly, Paige, and Natasha finding out interesting facts about Auckland Castle in the chapel. We also spent time coming up with ideas about people acting as tour guides, helping to tell people the heritage of the castle. On the left is a picture taken from our plans. 5
July 2015 - Meeting the Head of the Heritage Lottery for the UK. We were asked to meet with Sir Peter Luff, Head of the Heritage Lottery at Auckland Castle. Brian, Holly and Savannah spent a lot of time preparing for this as they wanted to tell him what the Heritage Hunters had done so far and what our plans were for moving forward. Brian, Holly and Savanah, members of our Heritage Hunters group going through their presentation before meeting with Sir Peter Luff. Not nervous at all then! Brian, Holly and Savanah meeting with Sir Peter Luff. Presenting what we have all been up to so far with the funding from the Young Roots Heritage Lottery Fund.. Brian Holly and Savanah presenting our ideas to Ivor Crowther (Head of Heritage Lottery Fund North East) and Alison Tweddle (Community outreach officer Auckland Castle Trust) and Rob Johnson from Investing In Children CIC. 6
Touring other castles. In July and August 2015 we also decided to visit Alnwick and Bamburgh Castles to find out as much as possible and to help develop our ideas regarding our planned events. Holly and Paige show their plans to visit other castles. The Heritage Hunters decided to start with visits to Alnwick in July and Bamburgh Castle in August 2015. Below members of the Heritage Hunters arriving at Alnwick Castle to discover and compare what this castle does differently to Auckland Castle. 7
Members of the group trying out one of the activities at Alnwick Castle Can you guess what movie the activity is based on? Brian, a Heritage Hunters Member, checking out Main Hall at Bamburgh Castle The main thing we took away from these castles was that no young people were involved in telling the stories about them and their history when we were there. It also gave BillyJoe an idea to sing songs as Bishop Barrington. We also agreed the importance of young people acting as tour guides to attract young people to Auckland Castle. 8
August to September 2015 - Practicing as Tour Guides. The next stages of the Heritage Hunter s work was very important. We needed to develop our stories of Auckland Castle into tours and develop our skills as tour guides. We did a lot of practice as tour guide sessions during August and September 2015. Below are some pictures of us going through our roles as guides and meeting to discuss the tours. 9
Our First Tour October 2015 We were then asked by Investing in Children to run our first Tour, taking 45 visitors from Sweden and Norway on a Tour of the Auckland Castle in October 2015. It was very scary as we had to tell a lot of people all the things we had found out about the castle and they were from different countries. However it went really well and we made lots of new friends to. Below is a picture of all us together. We even got in the local newspaper! See onto the next page the article taken from the Northern Echo in October 2015. 10
Youngsters promote children's rights with tours of Auckland Castle TOURS: The Heritage Hunters gave guided tours to fellow youngsters from Norway and Sweden INTERNATIONAL visitors had a guided tour around one of the region s castles by youngsters on Saturday (October 10). That s after the Heritage Hunters, a group of young people from Investing in Children CIC, a charity that provides research and participation services to organisations that work with children and young people, provided tours for two partner groups from Norway and Sweden. About 25 children took part in the day, which is the first in a series of activities planned between the different groups. Both adults and children enjoyed their tours which even featured one boy, Billy Joe Robinson, nine, dressing up as Bishop Barrington and singing his own song he had prepared for the day. It was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, who donated 28,000 to the project and Auckland Castle, who worked in partnership with the charity to make the day special. Senior project manager, Rob Johnson, said the day had been a great success. It s breaking down the barriers and getting the young people in here, he said. It s going to have an impact on them but it s about promoting children and young people s rights. 11
Our First Family Fun day. The next stage of your plan was to hold our first Family fun day, mainly for family and friends. With some of our invites going to people like family workers, teachers and youth workers we knew. It took place on the 14th November 2015 and to your amazement 79 people came!! More that we had ever expected as we set ourselves a target of 50 and beat it! Some quotes from people who attended. It was amazing, the young people were great. The song on the tour was the best and the hog roast was lovely. My children loved it and liked the fact it was other children taking them around the castle and want to come back. Older places like this need to get children involved as they tell the best stories. It s the first time I have been and we as a family have learnt so much about Auckland Castle. Thank you Heritage Hunters you were fantastic! What an amazing way to find out about the castle. My children really enjoyed getting their face painted and meeting amazing young people. 12
On the left is a picture of BillyJoe dressed as a Bishop Barrington for the Family Fun Day. BillyJoe thought music and songs were an important part of any successful tour and sang at the Family Fun Day in November 2015. Holly took a key role telling people where they would be going on tours. Below is a picture of Holly explaining all about it. 13
December 15 - Meeting with Northern Stars. We had decided early in the year to make a film with Northern Stars as a way to tell everyone about all the work done so far, but could not agree as a group about how much to spend on this part of our project. Then Investing in Children CIC explained that the Heritage Lottery Communication Team in London would kindly fund the film, We very happily went and met with Northern Stars in December 2015 and in January 2016 to discuss ideas for a film. Below are some of Heritage Hunters Members meeting with the Northern Stars Producers. January to February 2016 - Making the Heritage Hunters Extended Play (EP). Members of the group wanted to work with a local band and make their own EP (i.e. mini album ) to promote the castle to the local community. Billy Joe, Dominic and Faith took an active role during this time by writing, producing and singing songs for the EP. 14
Below is Billy Joe and Dominic in Bishop Auckland College recording studio and Faith and Dominic meeting local band 408 to discuss their EP. Also below is the EP cover designed by Natasha for the EP launch in April 2016. 15
March/April 2016 - Our Second family fun day We spent this time planning for your final fun day. We decided to open this up to the public by inviting different community members and groups. We also invited the Bishop Auckland Mayor, Durham County Councilors and the owner of the Auckland Castle and his wife. This time we set our target a little higher which was 65 to your amazement 92 young people attended. We did not take any pictures at this family fun day as Norther Stars filmed it to support an evaluation film of your work. March 2016 - Holly and her photography exhibition Holly, a Heritage Hunter Member, had been supported from January 2016 to develop her own photography exhibition regarding the Heritage Hunters projects. She learned how to take portrayed pictures and below are some of them. April 2016 - Celebration event. Investing in Children CIC and Auckland Castle held a celebration event at the castle to thank us all for our hard work. We also thought it would be a good place to launch the film about the project, Holly s photography exhibition and the Heritage Hunters EP. It was a great night and we all really enjoyed it. 16
Conclusion We have all really enjoyed the project and thanks to the Heritage Lottery Young Roots program for making it happen. It has allowed us to developed as group and learn the importance of working as team. The skills we have gained and the confidence we have developed will help us all in the future as we can know talk better in public, due to all the different presentations we did to lots of different people. This included acting as tour guides to over 200 people and talking to important people who work for the Heritage lottery about the project and the impact it has had on us all. We also learned about the importance of heritage sites and what they can bring to local areas like Bishop Auckland and the people that live there. Evaluating heritage sites was also very important skills we gained, especially developing and improving children, young people and families experiences when they first use them, so they return. Members of group also developed skills in music and song production, filming making, art and design skills and photography exhibition. We really hope you enjoyed our report. If you would like a copy of the film that tells the full picture of the project please get in touch with Investing in Children CIC (0191 3746113/ info@investinginchildren.net). You can also visit: https://www.hlf.org.uk/.../changing-lives-bishop-auckland-brothers-takecastle-storm to discover more. Thank you for all your support along our journey! The Heritage Hunters. Investing in Children CIC One Point Hub, Burns Green, Chester-le-Street, County Durham, DH3 3QH Website: www.investinginchildren.net Email: info@investinginchildren.net Tel: 0191 3729200 Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter: @IiC_rights We are a Community Interest Company (registered in England & Wales) No. 8428687 17