‘Audacious’ young people breathe life into Manchester
This Thursday and Friday (August 6 and 7), an expected 1,000 young people are taking part in 50 community improvement projects in 25 locations across Greater Manchester. Projects such as clearing rubbish, painting railings, removing graffiti and planting gardens will breathe new life into neglected areas of the city.
The initiative is part of the Audacious 09 summer youth festival, a Christian event running all week (August 3-8) in the city and attracting young people from Manchester and further afield.
Local projects will take place in Reddish (clearing gardens and ginnels), Kersal (clearing woodland), Eccles (litter picking and garden tidying), Flixton (graffiti removal and tidying scout hut), Langworthy (painting railings and clearing waste ground), Bury (litter picking, clearing waste ground, street clean-ups), Old Trafford (clearing yards and fly-tipping), Altrincham (clearing up transport interchange), Farnworth (litter picking), Halliwell (park tidying, gardening and repairs), Cheadle (park and sports activities), Didsbury (litter picking and family fun day), Failsworth (family open air events), Fitton Hill (cleaning local skate park and basketball court), Werneth (children’s holiday club), Greenacres (graffiti cleaning, back alleys and park tidying), Northern Moor (clearing local gardens), Openshaw (graffiti cleaning, cutting back bushes), Cheetham Hill (creation of a community garden), Collyhurst (litter picking, tiding garden areas) and Crumpsall (painting railings), Ordsall (various) and Brinnington (various).
‘Young people on the streets are usually seen as a bad thing in Greater Manchester,’ comments event coordinator Alan Saunders. ‘But this week we want to turn that idea on its head. Young people are making a positive contribution to the city they live in.’
He continues: ‘The idea behind it is simply to show God’s love in action. As we get our hands dirty serving local people in all these different ways, people start asking, “Why are you doing it?” We want to be able to tell them that God cares for their communities and so do we.’
Transporting the 1,000 young people around the city to participate in the afternoon projects is a logistical feat requiring a total of 24 double decker buses. These have been provided to the event completely free of charge by Stagecoach.
The Audacious Festival will culminate in a massive free outdoor event in central Manchester’s Cathedral Gardens and Spinningfields on Saturday 8 August. The event will feature outdoor sports, live music, street theatre and, for the first time ever in the centre of Manchester, a bungee crane. The day starts at 1pm and everyone is welcome.