Interactive drama to help young people cope with separation and divorce

The successful bid by Oxfordshire Family Mediation will enable the group to create and film an interactive drama to be used in secondary schools.  The aim is to increase awareness of the issues young people face during and after parental separation.  Participants will be able to stop the production at various points and shape the outcome as the drama unfolds.  The county council l has earmarked £2,500 to support the project. The group has raised a further £4,000 from public donations and the national charity, Children in Need, is donating £10,000. 

Other projects benefitting from this round of financial support include:

• Leys Youth Programme (£2,841) to run a range of weekly activity based clubs in Blackbird Leys
• Cherwell Theatre Company (£2,000) to stage 22 performances of a community production of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Mill Arts Centre
• The Children’s Society (£500) to fund a weekly activities club and
• Great Tew School Trust (£5,000) to construct a small community sports pitch/recreation area on the roof of the village school extension.

Councillor Louise Chapman, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families said: “These five projects demonstrate the calibre and creativity of youth projects in the county.  These projects demonstrate what can be achieved when communities harness the support of public, private and voluntary sector organisations to help them to turn brilliant ideas into tangible results.

"Children and young people are achieving remarkable things in their own right, raising money to ensure that aspirations are realised for the benefit of the community as a whole.”

Applications are invited from children’s and young people’s voluntary groups throughout Oxfordshire.  The last monthly deadline for the current round of funding is 11 February 2013.  Further details are available from:  www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/chill-out-fund-youth-activities-and-projects.