Kirkholt young people talk philosophy at the House of Lords
11 May 2010
A group of young people from Rochdale’s Kirkholt estate enjoyed an opportunity to talk philosophy at the seat of Government. As guests of Lord Richard Best, the three youngsters travelled to London as part of a project organised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The event was intended to influence policy-makers by engaging them directly in a very different way of working, based on and using the experience of a number of community-based philosophy projects. Kirkholt residents have taken part in a project called Philosophy for Communities (P4C), which involved local people from various age groups and backgrounds to get together and discuss many different subjects. Contour Housing organised these sessions at Kirkholt Community Church, and when the opportunity to take P4C to the House of Lords arose, the young people from Kirkholt were keen to be involved. The young people who took part were Jack Bromfield, Caitlin Reilly and Shannon Reilly. Shannon said, “I really enjoyed the visit. Lord Best showed us round the House of Lords and then we had a debate. We looked at an old picture of London, and everyone had to think of a question. The best ones were chosen and the one we put forward was ‘What’s so good about civilization?’ We were in different groups so that helped us to meet new people. There were different points of view and different answers.” Sam Cooper from Contour Housing said, “The House of Lords event showed the potential of bringing together different generations, and letting them talk about a range of subjects including sustainable communities, wellbeing and positive citizenship.” The Kirkholt youngsters shared the session with groups from Tyneside, Sunderland and York, providing a mix of ages. Policy makers from several Government departments also took part, together with the members of the Intergenerational Futures All-Party Parliamentary Group and representatives from universities, charities and voluntary organisations. The Philosophy for Communities sessions on Kirkholt were part of a programme called ‘Cohesion Counts’, which measured the impact of efforts to improve the cohesiveness of local areas within Oldham and Rochdale. The sessions involved a mixed-age group of residents and had a strong impact in improving relationships between different age groups, as well as improving residents’ perceptions of their estate.
