Brechin in Angus had its first outdoor cinema screening in September thanks to a small group of Young Placechangers from Brechin Street Games supported by Angus Council CLD. The event was attended by over 200 children, young people and adults.

The project has been in the planning since March where Finlay, Jordy and Liam and their youth worker attended Young Placechangers training. During the training they looked at what the term “Place” means to young people. Do they feel they have any influence over what decisions are made locally about services, access to greenspace, transport etc. and do they feel they can get involved in making positive changes in their local area? 

The group left the training inspired and full of ideas and with an insight into how they really could make a difference with the right tools and a mindset to get going. They made an application to the YPC seedcorn fund for a grant to hold and event in their community hear the voices of other young people. In September, after much hard work involving lots of other people in the community and planning from the young people, Brechin had its first outdoor cinema!

At the event the group used flip chart and post it notes to get people’s views (mainly young people) on what they would like to improve in their local area. The event was a great success and a huge boost of confidence for the Street Games Young Placechangers.

We asked them recently what they were most of and the answer was “How we ran it and how we achieved it”. They were really surprised by the amount of people turning up. And feel they have learned a lot from participating in the project from working as part of a team, communicating with lots of people and being confident about speaking to people that they wouldn’t normally speak too.

The group developing an Ideas Fund application to develop some of the ideas gathered at the event especially around activities for young people. They have also recently taken over premises in the High Street "The Lounge". Find out more about Brechin Street Games on their Facebook page