For many people the summer is the time to down tools and recharge the batteries but that definitely wasn’t the case for the sounddelivery team as we’ve just completed a series of exciting multi-media projects for YHA (formerly known as the Youth Hostels Association).

We’ve worked with the YHA over the past 2 years creating videos for their AGM which traditionally takes place in September. We’ve visited action-adventure summer camps (normally in the rain) and interviewed teachers and pupils and the benefits of going on school trips and staying in youth hostels. This year we’ve taken a slightly different approach and have been training young people (aged between 10 and 19) to do some of the work for us! Daubeney Primary School in Hackney volunteered to let us follow their Year 6 school trip. We trained the children to use audio recorders and digital cameras and they went away armed with microphones and made lots of recordings for us, and kept written diaries which we then able to record. We also trained teenagers to use small cameras so they could record video diaries while away at a YHA Do It 4 Real summer camp. You can see one of the videos created in a training session below.  Katie talks about why she’s chosen to go on the YHA Team Leaders summer camp, and her plans for the future.

We’ve also had exclusive access to the first Families’ Activity Breaks run by the Ministry of Defence in partnership with the YHA. This pilot project is aimed at families who have suffered the loss of a serving parent (including step parent or other legal guardian). The camp involves loads of fun and exciting activities including coasteering, abseiling and raft building. sounddelivery Associate Lucy Frears spent a day at the camp in Coverack in Cornwall and interviewed mothers and children about their holiday and how they felt about spending a week with other families going through the bereavement process.

We’re delighted that the audio we’ve collected will feature on Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio Four on Monday 17th August.