By Mark McGreehin
Everything is coming together on paper, in practice and as a community, for the newly dubbed Berry Train Trail!
This community journalist is gearing up for the February in-service weekend where he will lead “Film & Play” workshops for families out-and-about in Coldside green spaces. It doesn’t feel like shameless self-advertising to share the sign-up link and encourage you to see if there are any spaces left; this project is for and about those who care about Coldside, so have a look here.
We are however getting a few Berry Train stops ahead of ourselves; the previous ones being a pair of community workshops back in January hosted by Changemakers Dundee delivery partner the Maxwell Community Centre and Garden.
At these, illustrators and artists Suzanne Scott and Cara Rooney and fellow Changemaker Manuela de los Rios, workshopped trail ideas with Coldside young people and families; as Suzanne said at the start of the first workshop, “we could come up with loads of ideas but it’s your trail.”
In this first workshop Cara and Suzanne took the young people on a street-view virtual tour of Coldside green spaces and in return the young people gave them their invaluable, spontaneous, associations with the areas: “Conkerssss!”, “The climbing tree”, “The stomping bridge!”, “I have done tree planting up the Law”, “Monkey Tree!”, and in the second workshop “The shoe tree!”.
From the comfort of this warm workshop, activities for the trail stops were suggested and shared and issues of accessibility were constructively raised by a parent; every location may be accessible but that doesn’t mean everyone can use what is there, for example swings and play equipment. Suzanne clarified, “so it’s about making the locations accessible but also the [trail] activities…if there was an option for everybody.” This led to enthusiastic discussion of activities based around nature, observation and imagination which have less barriers.
Across the two workshops names for the trail were shared and enjoyed as were colour schemes for the printed maps - “really bright colours!” - but it was at the second workshop that the theme of the trail lined up to become the Berry Train Trail. Cara and Suzanne opened the workshop by saying respectively, “our goal today is to create a logo" ; “something that will draw people into the areas.”
When they suggested the theme of train stops for the trail - something that also reflects Dundee’s industrial past - the young people were all on board. During the fast-paced exchange that followed, the train theme had many carriages added on, such as an animal guide, then the notion of dropping off/picking up an animal at each stop; this led to a suggested activity of collecting stamps for the animals. “If the [trail] sign was raised you could do a crayon rubbing," offered a parent, which could be like passport stamps, a young person concluded; it quickly became a full train of thought!
Since the workshops we have all been hard at work, and soon it will all come together when the project is given to the community who inspired and helped shape it. The main inspiration I have taken from the workshops is an excitement for “discovering things”, for exploration... It’s amazing how much there is to find, even a mile from your home.
