Elevation Building confidence and structures with Shadsworth Community

Building dens and bringing a community together

Elevation: Building confidence and structures with Shadsworth community took engineering out into one of the most deprived communities in the UK, Shadsworth in Blackburn Lancashire. This Ingenious funded project shared creative learning with children aged 6 to 15, many of whom had never experienced engineering before. Engineers from industry and academia were invited to deliver in-community workshops and den building activities to engage new audiences and inspire future careers in engineering.

Reflecting on their vision for the project, project leads Ric Brame and Loriane Dinham, part of the team at the University of Central Lancashire’s Creative Innovation Zone, felt that den building fitted perfectly with their aim of showing how engineering can relate to anyone. “Den building is an experience everyone remembers as a child, building that safe space, that was the principle of the bid”.

A community focus 

The project team wanted to utilise the resources available to them at the university and take this out to the community “we asked ourselves where do we apply our creativity to stem and engineering and what community would we impact? We quickly identified Shadsworth”.

Shadsworth is situated in the Southeast ward of Blackburn. The ward is ranked nationally 105 out of 32,844 for deprivation. All surrounding schools report high levels of Pupil Premium funding, and the reports continue to show high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.

Elevation collaborated with Newground Together, a social enterprise that specialises in providing in-community support to those families and individuals living on and surrounding Shadsworth Estate, Blackburn. The project leads found working with Newground Together helped them target hard to reach communities, ‘Newground Together were pivotal to help accessing members of the community’. The social enterprise targeted families and children to participate through engagement workshops in August 2021 and community den building in October 2021.

Working with engineers

Working with another local organisation, STEM First, Elevation recruited the majority of their engineers and ran introduction webinars to capture the engineers’ experiences of public engagement, to learn what motivated them and how confident they felt about communicating with the public about engineering. 

They were enthused to see the younger audience embrace the workshop activities and realised that such activities whether online or in person needed to be short, interactive and fun.

Some 96% of engineers who participated in the Elevation project said they would continue to support future public engagement activity either by participating again or recommending to a friend.

Building the Dens

Spanning over 17 months, the project delivered a university-led den design competition with future engineers and design students. This also inspired a series of in-community workshops on the theme of ‘worker bees’, showcasing how some of nature’s finest engineers apply their skills and knowledge to build their communities. Starting with Lego, straws, paperclips and recycled materials, the engineers gave demonstrations and led competitions in building structures. A den building event was also staged with community members on the site of Shadsworth celebrating the learning achieved.

For the final event, the project team hired a bus to take 20 members of the local community to the UCLAN campus to enjoy Lancashire science festival. Activities at the festival included creating a seven-foot den to showcase to other attendees!

Adapting to a new normal

The project was significantly impacted by the global pandemic. When communities, industry, and education all went into lockdown, the project team had to adapt to include online communications as part of the project, “We were learning on the job; we had never used break out rooms before”.

When asked how they stayed resilient when dealing with the delays, Ric and Loriane felt staying positive was key. ‘We’re a really motivated team, we explored different routes on the table working with STEM First and our different partners, and we had a real determination to postpone until we could deliver the event in person’.

Overall Ric and Loraine felt that maintaining a flexible approach to their work and adapting to the ever-changing situation of the pandemic was essential to the success of the project. They also credit their partnerships in helping to enhance each stage of delivery. ‘Partnerships with STEM First, Newground Together, Blackburn Youth Zone and the National Festival of Making have all been invaluable. These were true knowledge exchange partnerships which made project challenges to engage with engineers and community groups and plan creative activities easier through their knowledge, experience, and established relationships’.