Young Roots programme
Grant awarded £25,000

Imagine having every single membership card issued by your youth club over the past 100 years. Imagine being able to map every family in the immediate area for a century through your own youth centre.

That’s what young people in Salford had the opportunity to do. Around 40 young people from the Salford Lads and Girls club worked over an 18 month period to produce an exhibition marking the centenary of the club. The club has kept every single membership card since 1904 and the project has created a digital archive with the material, along with other photos, documents and ephemera.

The club itself was opened by the founder of the Boy Scout movement. It has appeared on a Smiths album cover and has made countless TV appearances.

With the help of Granada TV, the young people accessed costumes to recreate iconic figures from different decades paralleling the history of the club.

As well as related equipment, the grant paid for youth work staff, artists and a local historian to work with participants.

19/10/07