Making literary heritage accessible to young people The Unwrapping Words project has changed the lives of young people from deprived areas by empowering their creative talents and gifts through art, music, literature and film The Moville and District Family Resource Centre supports fami- lies and individuals in the Inishowen peninsula of County Donegal, Ireland. In 2015, it brought together marginalised young people from Inishowen and Derry City to explore the Photo: © Moville and District Family Resource Centre literary heritage of this North-West border region of Ireland.

The ‘Unwrapping Words’ project looked at the works of writers Key facts and figures such as Joyce Cary, Frank McGuinness, Bridget O’Toole and Erasmus+ Participants: Countries: Mabel Colhoun, who are connected to Inishowen through their 48 2 books, family, themes, sense of place or geographical refer- Field: Youth ence in their work. Participants reinterpreted and contextual- Action: Strategic ised the works, with multimedia technology employed to Partnerships EU grant: Project duration: encourage participation and creativity. € 23,288 2015-2016

The project coordinator, Michael McDermott, explained: Project title We wanted to reinterpret our own cultural Unwrapping Words identity through the eyes of young people ‘ from two urban and rural areas facing social and economic deprivation.’

Participants created a mural piece, located in a cross- border area that will be directly impacted by Brexit which will see the United Kingdom withdrawing from the European Union. The mural is seen on average by 10 000 cars that pass the site each week. Other activi- ties included the production of a rap music CD produced by the participants themselves that deals with issues affecting their own lives. A short film and DVD depict- ing the project was also created.

‘The high visibility and multi-media nature of the pro- ject gave us a local, regional, national and European platform to highlight our work and resulted in a launch event that attracted more than 200 partici- pants,’ Michael added.

The Centre plans to apply for further Erasmus+ youth partnerships in the coming year. Lead organisation Name: Moville and District Family Resource Centre Location: Moville, Ireland More information Website: http://movillefrc.com/ Project website: http://parenthubdonegal.ie/services/listing/ Partner North West Play Resource Centre, United Kingdom moville-frc/

The Erasmus+ Project Results Platform: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/ projects/eplus-project-details/

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