Supporting young people to ask the First Minister difficult questions about poverty
/HIIC helped to spark community action with this BAFTA short-listed, youth-led documentary exploring the impact of poverty in local communities.
What happened?
Young people, supported by range fo stakeholders and Plantation Productions, created a short film which enabled them to quiz a range of key decision makers about the impact of poverty and inequality in Scotland. The film explored questions such as:
How does poverty affects young people’s lives?
How is the economy working (or not) for young people?
What barriers do young people face?
What's the the impact of economic inequality, sanctions, food poverty and health inequalities?
The film was produced in a participatory way, where participants were supported to lead and have ownership of the production process.
How did HIIC spark community action?
HIIC was used by the young people to help them developed their understanding of issues such as what affects their health and their community’s health, health inequalities and poverty.
These sessions laid the groundwork for a participatory action research approach, enabling the young people to identify the issues associated with austerity and poverty whilst making the link to determinants of health.
The final film highlights these issues, the young people interviewed a range of decision makers, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon where the young people got the chance to ask her tough questions.
The experience also led to the development of a toolkit, based on HIIC materials, which supports learners to explore the issues in the film. The 4 interactive sessions, each lasting 50 minutes, provide learners with the opportunity for class discussion, group work and the chance to share their learning.