Adults’ responses
As well as being a success with the young people, the People & Place programme was also very beneficial for the adults involved. The programme developed not only the skills, but also the confidence of the staff across all partner museums who may have had limited experience of working with young people before the projects. This result is very promising, as it points to a growing group of museum staff able and now willing to work on youth initiatives in the future. This development was also commented on by the young people involved, who called staff ‘cool and inspirational’ after realising how responsive they were to young people’s ideas. Similarly staff, who had never before worked with young people, were impressed by participants’ motivation and enthusiasm for their work:
“My preconceptions of young people are that they are from another planet…I don’t have children… no engagement with young people… I came to a wrong assumption about young people and was delighted to be proved wrong.” – Museum staff member, Brighton
Also promising is that in all partner museums, the People & Place projects led to increased evidence of:
- Strong senior management support
- Museum staff engagement with the projects
- Staff interest in work done with groups of young people
- Flexibility in terms of allocating staffing and other resources to youth-focused projects.
