Peter Coddington is Portfolio and Partnerships Manager within Yorkshire Water. One of his tasks is to create a Centre of Excellence for Learning and Well Being at one of their sites. As the Organisation move forward the 21st Century innovations in the Waste Water treatment has reduced the demands on land within the site.
How can they develop the site to improve commercial, economic, and social benefits?
Peter is aware of Canal Connections’ Vision and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal does run through the middle of the site, so !!!....
“Is there any social use you can see for Esholt?”
I gave some thought to this simple question,
“Well we are a delivery partner for IGNITE. Does the site have any relevance in the Post-Industrial Revolution era? We may be able to engage young people but I’m not sure they will be interested in a sewage works !!”
Peter Forrest is one of our Waterways Ambassadors. He has been with me for over 17 years, pestering me as a 13-year-old to get involved. Fortunately for me his persistence paid off and we used to take the boat along that stretch of water.
“Do you remember that stretch of canal?”
I had to refresh his memory… but
“Oh yes, it always struck me as very dark. Once you got into Field Lock you were in the middle of woodland. I don’t remember seeing anything about Yorkshire Water though.”
Image by Parise
Alan and myself arranged a zoom meeting with Peter C. I asked Peter F if he wanted to come. It may be difficult though as I recognised the constraints of zoom, concentration, and boring conversations. “Don’t feel you have to contribute but it may give you some thoughts as to its use.”
He sat through a very comprehensive outline of the site, its current use, and the aspirations as to its potential use. He listened as ‘the adults’ (Peter is still a young person in my world) clarified certain points, introduced ideas as to how each could contribute to the vision. After a couple of hours, I asked Peter if he had any thoughts but did not want to put him under pressure “You can share them later if you wish.” His enthusiasm was obvious as he recounted the value of the estate.
“I am on a photography and mindfulness course at the moment - I can see how we could use the site for that.”
Image by Peter Forrest
Peter and Robin (Esholt site Project Manager) were hooked. They loved the sound of that and we were given a challenge of creating a proof-of-concept project to demonstrate the potential of the site. Peter C. was invited to present to the Canal Connections Development Team, made up of beneficiaries from our ‘young’ and ‘older ‘people’s projects, together with the Board of Directors to gain their support.
From that we have created a Documentary project to capture the Natural, built, and cultural Heritage of the site through sight and sound using it to develop the talents and interests of young people with the support of older people.
We have a professional photographer. Mark and his team will be offering advice, support, equipment, and staff to develop a documentary. Mark is a strong advocate of Canal Connections. He uses his obvious skill to empower young people to be involved in all aspects of the process. We use the finished product as a stronger evaluation and documenting of their work than cold stats. Here is an example of a video he has made for us in the past: Summer School.
We have Charlie who came to us as a 13-year-old student but has now graduated from University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. She is in employment (in the Financial Services) but would like to complete a Masters.
“Could you use your volunteering with Canal Connections to contribute to that?”
Images by Yvonne Roberts
We have Jon, a new volunteer, who has come to us with a recommendation from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust after completing a Tomorrows Natural Leader Course in 2018 with them. He is supporting the Reflections Team, a group of teenagers, on the IGNITE programme to complete a John Muir Award on a piece of canal side land at Knostrop. We also feel his Masters in Marine Biology will contribute to both sites.
Peter F will bring the experiences he has gained since that first meeting. He left the country for a while to Volunteer Overseas which encompassed sailing a Tall masted ship from Finland to Africa to re-cycle goods but not until he had become the youngest person to pass the Certificate of Community Boating (CCBM) at 17 years and 2 days of age. He was instrumental in the development of a Community Boat Leadership Course. Despite its success in empowering young people though boating it did not secure repeat funding but its principles remain in Canal Connections.
Peter will develop his interest in photography to help him support the Reflections Team to document the project.
Image by Yvonne Roberts
The process will be overseen by our Artistic Director, Yvonne. After graduating from University in 1998 with a degree in Communication she was struggling with the employment process. After 147 applications for a job, it was counted as a success to get a reply, let alone an interview.
I offered her a weeks volunteering with me.
I was co-ordinator on a pilot project with the Princes Trust, Arts Cool, which was a week residential at Bretton College. It was a National programme for young people designed to use their skills to create, produce and present a stage show within a week. Their personal development over the week was tracked and evaluated by a team of mentors. Unfortunately, it did not receive repeat funding.
With an expectation to just make the tea she was quickly recruited to support the artist who was documenting the process. Over the week she progressed to second camera and by the end of the week she was offered a job.
Some 20 years later she has her own business and has many memorable memories but amongst her favourites is when she volunteered for Canal Connections in 2012, as the Artist in Residence. She found a love for the canal and brought real meaning to our strap line of
People – Heritage - Nature
Images by Yvonne Roberts
In 2020 she created a collaboration with Parise, a 16-year-old aspiring photographer. Parise had joined us for a couple of hours on a Reflections Cruise in February as part of her work experience. Lockdown created complications but the collaboration created a piece of work which we used as an example of our work to receive a commission from the Cultural Institute at university of Leeds to exhibit in their “Beyond Measure; Exploring the evidence and research between Culture and Health.”
“Presence” by Yvonne Roberts and Parise
The finished work “Rust and Ripples” has created multiple opportunities and is acting as a template within this project. I however like the secondary strap line that Yvonne created for the social media video
Creativity - Sharing - Bravery
When I asked for the reasoning behind this, particularly the sharing and bravery. She identified how the security of the boat and environment had provided the safety to enable people to open and share their secrets, their interests, their ideas and their opinions. Some of those required great bravery in the company of relative strangers.
Parise is now at College on a photographic course and does sessional work with Mark. “We would love her to become a team member and perhaps that may contribute towards her qualifications?”
Well, that answers my question…
“Will young people be interested in a sewage works!!”
Image by Yvonne Roberts
Follow our story to see if Yorkshire Water like our concept.
Image by Yvonne Roberts