HOMELESS youngsters enjoyed a day of journalism when the BBC's Internet bus paid a visit to the Belvedere Project in Runcorn.
The BBC Liverpool Learning Bus, equipped with computers, recording equipment and other resources spent a day at the project, allowing young people full use of all its facilities and even showing them how to make their own radio piece for broadcast.
Estelle Condliff, broadcast journalist, said the bus was being sent out to different youth organisations across the North West over the next six years with aim of providing a multi-media learning centre, specifically for the use of 14-25 year olds who are not in any form of employment, education or training.
'The idea really is to take learning out of the classroom and prove to young people that it can be fun,' she said.
'We have all kinds of equipment on the bus which allows them to become a radio producer for a day as well as designing their own web page, slide shows or radio trailers. The young people at the Belvedere project got involved in a whole host of activities and at the end of the day they were able to keep a copy of their work so they had something to take away and show what they'd done.' Terry Burke, support worker at Belvedere, said: 'The bus was really fantastic and the young people here really found it an educational and useful experience.
'They were able to try different radio skills as well as use the computers and recording decks to cut their own CDs and search the Internet for information on benefits and search for jobs.
'We had some really positive feedback, and the whole experience seems to have left many of them with a more positive out-look and helped build their self-esteem.' Some of the people at the Belvedere project even had the chance to tell the world about their experience of being homeless when they were interviewed about their lives with the finished edit - worked on by the interviewees themselves - broadcast on BBC Radio Merseyside.
