A brief history of shmu Youth Media

A brief history of youth media

The SHMU Youth Media Project has grown from the successes of previous projects which the organisation has supported over a number of years. These pilots have proved to be extremely popular with participants with many of those taking part going on to further education, employment and rewarding careers.

The pilot projects that shmu has delivered over recent years include; the HMIe recognised Youth Radio Project (YRP) which supports young people to broadcast regular live radio programmes across the city on our FM Community Radio station; the Cashback for Creativity funded Youth TV project which supported young people to produce and present live TV programmes and produce short films; and the Youth Music Initiative funded shmuSOUND project which supported young people to create, record, broadcast and disseminate original, previously unrecorded music.

In our YRP & TV pilots, young people were supported to meet weekly to decide on the content of their shows, discuss training plans which in turn created opportunities for youth work staff to identify support needs.  It also provided a platform for peer mentor support, which we plan to build on in this new project.

Through the pilot projects, the young people involved developed increased confidence and skills and were provided with training and on-going support. This allowed participants to develop the skills necessary to research, write, present, produce and edit media for broadcast.

As a leading community media organisation in Scotland, SHMU recognises the vital importance of multi-agency and partnership working and has partnered with 249 organisations over the last year.

The youth media project will build on what has already been achieved by the youth pilots and the projects' participants will become a key asset for both the project and the communities in which they live. Following training, participants will become volunteers, attending on at least a weekly basis, researching, producing and broadcasting engaging content that will be shared across our target communities and beyond, creating a valuable and unique resource, offering a young person’s perspective on life.