Looking at the lives of young carers

Meet Alban 17, Jodie 15 and Grace 13.

Once a fortnight they attend Wigan and Leigh Young Carers, THE coolest youth club usually held at Sunshine House in Wigan.

My colleague Anna Taylor first told me about the Outreach opportunity to volunteer for a project involving the charity which offers support to children who are involved in caring for a family member.

Our mission was to produce a four minute promotional video, to be shown in schools, to promote Wigan and Leigh Young Carers to encourage more young carers to sign up.

Anna and I took up the challenge.

A production co-ordinator (PC) in Religion, I organise outside broadcasts and when recording music PC’s shot call and log, and in live TV galleries our responsibility is for timings, so we know all about working under pressure.

 As a researcher on Songs of Praise my BBC colleague Anna Taylor is at the centre of finding gripping stories and themes for our new format Sunday afternoon programmes and has some self-shooting experience.

A recent drive in our department has encouraged everyone to get self-shooting, so with our camera familiarisation course behind us we set off to Wigan three times over four months.

Every visit we interviewed one of our three child carers, usually in their home setting, then filmed that week’s activity - the making of a Christmas log table decoration, a very interactive session with a spoken poet and a very dark noisy session at Atherton roller skate rink!

In the editing process democracy broke out. Transcripts in hand we quickly dropped any interviews we’d done with adults.

The video was to focus on the three young carers. It would not dwell, particularly visually, on what being a young carer entails – it was more about the fun and positivity offered by the charity.

 The film, to be shown in schools, would be introduced with a short explanation, and then the three young carers would start the video each saying: “I am ……. And I care for my …….” in order to set the scene.

Once the film was finished we invited 20 of Wigan and Leigh’s young carers to MediaCityUk to view it.

A buffet of burger, chips and pizza, a visit to the Sport studio and gallery and a look around the breakfast TV set, topped by a sit in The Voice UK chair were all ingredients for a memorable night.

This experience took us both out of our comfort zones and I found that asking questions of interviewees is more difficult than it looks, and that it’s difficult to get them to say what you want them to in a clear ‘sound bitey’ way.

We are both really proud of the end product. It’s refreshing to be able to give back something to kids in the community who have additional pressures to battle.

 Take a look at what Outreach has to offer, see what you fancy, say yes and go for it!

*Wigan & Leigh Young Carers received funding from BBC Children In Need, and this relationship allowed them to bid through the BBC Children in Need Community Doorway Programme.

BBC Outreach set up the partnership with Children In Need last year so that BBC staff volunteers have a chance to work with charities which benefit from money raised and donated by our audiences; and BBC staff have this chance to engage in a new way with the BBC Children In Need charity.