Overview

Project title:
Dartmouth Park

Project Location:
Sandwell

Date of Project:
November 07 - March 08

Project Participants:
Greets Green Youth Forum

Project Funders:
Community First Partnership
SMBC

Project Overview:
During November 2007, Multistory were commissioned by Community First Partnership to work with a group of young people from the Greets Green Youth Forum as part of a series of consultation workshops taking place across the borough about the restoration of Dartmouth Park.

Work started on the £6.2M restoration project back in 2006 when Sandwell Council made an application to the joint funded Big Lottery and Heritage Lottery Funds’ Parks for People programme for funding to restore and enhance Dartmouth Park in West Bromwich. This stage 1 submission led to a lengthy process of consultation, drawing up plans and adding costs which informed the stage 2 submission in March 2008, which was successful, and work will begin on the ground in 2009.

As part of the consultation, Multistory and local illustrator Duane Leslie worked with the young people to look at the proposed plans and to come up with ideas of potential future events and activities that could take place in the park’s proposed events and performance spaces and in the Pavilion. The young people took photos of the park and of each other acting out their ideas; these images and ideas were then used by Duane to create a series of illustrations, featuring the young people, showing what it will look like if these events and activities took place in the park in the future. All of the ideas and comments made by the young people were reported back to Community First Partnership to be fed into the stage 2 submission.

An article was included in Voice 21 magazine, a borough-wide publication for young people, which was distributed in early March 2008, and there was an opportunity for young people across the borough to feedback further ideas via the Multistory website.