Eden Media

Eden Media was originally set up as a demonstration project in March 2009 with support from Eden District Council and funding from the Cumbria Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (CIEP). 

The website was developed as part of the New Media for Youth Engagement (NMYE) Conference to provide opportunities for the Council and other organisations in Eden and throughout Cumbria to learn more about how new media can be used by young people to enable them to take part in local service decisions and improve what happens in their lives and communities. Some young people also attended to give their points of view.

Prior to the conference, a series of youth events were organised by the Council at the Penrith Skateboard Park on 26th April.  Leisure Services then wanted to find out what young people thought about the day.  At the very first new media shoot, some young people took  photos of the events. Others took on the role of  social reporters using digital cameras to get opinions from other young people attending the event. 

The new media results were uploaded to the site to show others what young people felt about the SkateJam. Their views fed back to the Council’s Leisure Services who took what they thought on board before designing the Pendragon Festival as a follow up to the SkateJam events.

A number of young people wanted to continue to use participatory media beyond the demonstration phase. Consequently, Eden Media is evolving into a pilot project – see the ‘About Section’ for more information.  To see a synopsis of conference outcomes and follow open development of the pilot  project see the wiki.