Collective Poetry in Johnshaven
Following a community profile and community engagement event in Johnshaven in 2019, the Community Learning and Development (CLD) team planned to carry out a social capital assessment of the village.
Due to COVID, the exercise was postponed and completed in 2022.
Using collective poetry and the CLD Knowing Your Community (KYC) toolkit, CLD staff met face to face, with primary aged young people who were able to express themselves and 'grade' their community.
How we used collective poetry with primary aged young people to enhance Knowing the Community
Prior to engaging with the young people, CLD staff met with them to discuss the project, what it was about, what we hoped to do with the information and agree on a possible event to share the findings.
After some ice-breaker activities, CLD staff gave all the young people post-it notes, explaining that all responses were valid and would be compiled into a collective poem. The young people were enabled to express their views about their community anonymously in response to the following prompts:
Johnshaven is…
The things I love about Johnshaven are…
The things I would like to change about Johnshaven are…
The things I love about Johnshaven…
The people in it, the community,
Having fun, my family, my friends, my dogs,
My home, our school,
The beach,
The woods, the forest,
The park,
The decorations,
The pub,
The harbour, the shore and the sea,
the smell of fish,
The colours and the flowers.
Johnshaven is…
pretty, lovely, good, fun, amazing,
and I love it!
a beach place,
a quiet place,
a small village,
a safe village,
a seaside village,
a fishing village,
a crabby place,
it smells of fish,
Johnshaven is crab haven.
The things I would change about Johnshaven…
Nothing,
More pupils in the school,
More trees and flowers,
More fairy gardens,
More playparks,
A better park,
Sandy beaches,
More places to walk,
More animal friendly,
More shops, toy shops, cafes, pubs and take aways,
More food and more economic,
A bigger pub,
More ice cream,
No fish smell,
MacDonalds,
Codona’s amusements.
Collective Voice by introducing audio and visual access
This can widen your audience.
When the young people were presented with their collective poetry, they were impressed with their joint work. CLD suggested extending the reach of the poem to the wider community, through recording audio clips and accompanying them with visual material captured by the young people to reflect their views. This would then be presented at a community event.
Click on the video links below
This entailed two additional sessions.
One session focused on recording young people’s voices – reading their own words.
One session focused on photographs taken by the young people on a walkabout around the community.
Johnshaven Is.mp4The things I love about Johnshaven.mp4The Things I Would Change About Johnshaven.mp4YMI Video.mp4Event - Sharing Collective Voices
CLD worked in partnership with key stakeholders at an event sharing the young peoples creative expression of their views.
During the event, primary aged young people suggested using a prompt with the adults attending and another collective poem was created spontaneously. The prompt used was ‘In Johnshaven, we…’
This provided an insight into the community’s sense of itself.
In Johnshaven we...
In Johnshaven we like living in a small place,
Having many attractive features and buildings
And living by the sea
We like to swim in the sea,
get ice cream from hidden treasures
And the dogs can come too
In Johnshaven we would like more clubs and special interest groups
And more help at the community garden,
We would like the roads repaired and speed limits in place
And see the outcomes of the plan being implemented
In Johnshaven we love the friendliness of the village
We are always available to support our friends and neighbours
We are welcoming and caring,
We have a lovely helpful community
Benefits of using collective poetry with primary aged children
Gave young people a chance to express their views anonymously, or openly if desired.
Good initial catalyst to promote thinking about their community.
Young people took full ownership of their poetry and were willing to further invest in getting heard more widely, using creative media forms and activities.
Positive response from audience/stakeholders at event where collective poetry shared.
As CLD practitioners, it provided an opportunity to hear real voices and immerse staff in the community, build relationships and gain a greater understanding of local needs.