On Monday 13 February, six 11-15 year olds waited nervously outside the ‘Headspace’ room at the Tyneside Cinema, anticipating what to expect when the clock struck three... 

Equally as nervous, Kate Fox and I welcomed the young people in and apprehensively poured orange juice for all those there. After some ice breakers and warm-ups we got down to business by ‘writing with our running minds’ as Kate set the group away with writing non stop for two minutes using an imaginative stimulus – not as easy as it sounds. Then onto ‘running with a writing mind’ as the 11 -15 year olds have to balance a tennis ball between their foreheads in pairs and move, in silence, throughout the space requiring focus and fitness. A round of much appreciated juices later and Kate sums up with a discussion session about pondering the following: "Body image concerns put people off exercising” and "People would write more if writers were cooler” from which Kate and I carefully noted the interesting and thought-provoking responses.

One workshop down with only one to go; after a couple of alterations to our plan for the Thursday session Kate and I set away once more with a second group of young people to research and provide accurate info straight from the audience themselves for her up and coming script of ‘The Starting Line’. Proving themselves to be as intriguing as the Monday group, Kate managed to walk out of the Tyneside Cinema at 4.30pm with bucket loads of responses and pointers to shape and tailor-make her show so that we, the audience, will get as much out of it as possible come September. As for me, I leave the cinema feeling relieved that the recruited participants turned up and seemed to have a good time, just as excited as Kate herself about the impact of the hour and a half sessions.

With this element of my Changemakers project well and truly underway, I turned my attention last week to the 6-10 recommendations I have to make for Great North Run Culture. These are to be completed by the end of March so the clock is ticking to delve into the organisation to find out as much as I can so that my recommendations are as useful as possible both for Beth and the team, as well as young people like myself.