Ring Leaders seconded to Circus Central project

In November we were delighted to welcome six young people from the Five Ring Circus who have been seconded from the Five Ring Circus Youth Board to have particular interest in Circus Central’s development. They represent young people from North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Newcastle and Stockton youth circus clubs. They will be joined in 2011 year by a further six young people.

The 14 strong Youth Board unanimously decided that they would like to be known as ‘Ring Leaders’. Five Ring Circus is a very dynamic 2.5 year project developing youth circuses in the NE. It is part of a larger project called NE-Generation which is funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to promote and support a cultural legacy form 2012. Five Ring Circus is an important part of NE-Generation and is very active in supporting the wider project from the start. At the moment four Ring Leaders have joined the NE-Generation team, at the Regional Youth Work Unit, in helping to make decisions about the 10th Project and two are on the panel who will help choose the successful projects for the NE-Generation’s 11th project, Cultural Innovations. This means that Ring Leaders along with the Five Ring Circus Project are involved in making real decisions about the allocation of more than £300,000 of Legacy Trust UK funds. This is a real and meaningful investment in Creative Youth participation.

The Ring Leaders discussed the roles they would like to see fulfilled by the NECDT and have asked that the NECDT to help by fulfilling their wish list as part of the Aims and Objectives, they would like to see the following happen:

• We want to have somewhere to do Circus – a Building- so we (and other young people) can get better
• We want a safe, fun, environment for young people to go to do circus and get off the streets (and then to be returned to the streets as performers)
• We want to change the perception of circus and make it acceptable and easy to take part in
• We want the NECDT to help create and sustain real connections between individuals and groups by providing circus gatherings, and events where the circus community can be at home together