29 October 2011

Project Northern Lights returns from epic adventure

Wildfox staff welcomed home ten young people on the sailing boat the Alba Venture back into Greenock harbour on Friday after a week long voyage around the west coast of Scotland. Their voyage with the Scottish Ocean Youth Trust is the final leg of Project Northern Lights -  a challenging eight-week adventure and personal training programme run by the Muirhouse Youth development Group (MYDG) to help disadvantaged young people turn their lives around.

Set up by Wildfox Events to help young people escape the relentless cycle of crime and punishment, Project Northern Lights is the latest example of businesses stepping up to support grassroots organisations in one of Scotland’s most deprived communities in North Edinburgh.

The journey has involved three physically gruelling stages over the course of eight weeks: instruction in personal training, coaching and teamwork; an intensive course in outdoor survival skills and fitness; culminating in a week-long sail-training voyage around the west coast of Scotland with Ocean Youth Trust Scotland.

Ian Wilson (age 16) commented: “Project northern lights has been a really big inspiration to me from the start. It has built my self confidence, helped me interact more with other young people and has made me more responsible. The biggest challenge was sailing across to Loch Fyne. It was really windy and the waves were massive and the boat was rocking from side to side, it was pretty scary. This is something that everybody should go out and experience, its really beneficial for young people and I hope it does carry on because it has really changed my life. It has given us hope, strength and togetherness”

Led by WildFox Events, Project Northern Lights aims to build the skills, experience and confidence of young people aged 12-25 who have no formal qualifications and who live turbulent and chaotic lifestyles. And with the young people involved having already faced wilderness camping, shelter building and skinning rabbits for food to survive, it’s been no picnic.

Peter Johnston Manager of MYDG and one of the youth workers on the voyage summed up the project: “The community and the schools are saying that there is nothing they can do for these young people and yet the progress they have made over the course of this project has been real and measurable. For many of them their skills and responsibility had been acknowledged for the first time. The project also gave two or three young people the opportunity to really shine in a way they haven’t shone for a very long time. One of the lads (Marcus) is even hoping to come back for bosun training with the Ocean Youth Trust and would like to volunteer for the project if it is repeated next year. “

The success of the pilot project, which was funded by the Artemis Charitable Foundation and Finlayson Wagner Black and has received cross-party political backing from the SNP, Conservative and Scottish Green Parties, means it could to be rolled out on a larger scale in 2012, benefiting more than 45 young people.

“Project Northern Lights is all about giving marginalised young people in Scotland the chance to shine,” said WildFox’s Director David Fox Pitt. “Young people from troubled backgrounds are valuable participants in our society who should be helped and guided rather than judged.”

The group have been documenting their progress in film, words and pictures on their blog

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