Reflection on the 'value' of a participatory filmmaking project for young people with refugee experience making home in Scotland

Filmmaker and animator Simon Bishopp and myself, Katja, an independent researcher based in Glasgow, are currently running an 8-months long participatory filmmaking project for young people with refugee experience who are making home in Glasgow. The project is called 'Scotland Our New Home'. We are teaching a group of 15-20 young people the technical and artistic filmmaking and storytelling skills they need, in order to be able to make their own films and tell the stories that are important to them. Simon and I are funded through Creative Scotland - the former Scottish Arts Council - and have teamed up with the New Young Peers Scotland, a group founded by Lorraine Ward, a social worker for Glasgow's Children and Families Social Work Department, Lyn Ma, a senior ESOL lecturer at a Glasgow Clyde College and Vicky Burns from Ypeople, a children's charity working with care-experienced young people. Together, Lorraine, Lyn and Vicky have founded the 'New Young Peers Scotland', with the aim to train and support young asylum seekers and refugees to become peer mentors for other newly arrived young people in Scotland. Simon and I are delivering the filmmaking project 'Scotland Our New Home' as part of their training programme