By Callum McGuigan
Creative media students from South West College have premiered a short video highlighting anti-social behaviour in Omagh town.
This documentary was put together by first-year students on the course in collaboration with the Police and Community Safety Partnerships, who funded the project, and the Omagh community policing team.
The students have been working for over a year to engage with key groups in the community, such as the Campsie Residents Association, car enthusiasts, the Community Church and local business owners to gauge what issues the town is facing and what solutions can be made to address them.
One of their main focuses was the disconnect from older members of the public ‘misunderstanding’ and feeling ‘intimidated’ by groups of youths.
SOLUTION
Sergeant Jonny Hamill, from the PSNI community team, said, “I was looking for a solution to an issue that we’ve been dealing with for quite some time, and I was aware of the fact that we talk about young people, instead of talking to people.
“The idea was working alongside SWC to encourage them to work alongside us to try and address anti-social behaviour and to get them to understand what it is.”
“With the inter-generational disconnect, it is rare to see groups of younger people engage with older people when they’re walking past them.
“In the video, I said if younger people saw them walking past and just said ‘hello’, ‘nice day’ ‘lovely dog’ and things like that, it would make such a massive difference.
“I’m hoping that it will get that message out there.”
OPPORTUNITY
Kirk Gilmore, who teaches the media class and oversaw the project, added, “It was a great opportunity for the students. The PSNI came to us about a project they wanted to work on with us and it was a great opportunity to get the students some real-world experience working on a film.
“They took charge of it, they planned it, they shot everything individually and it was very much their own project.
“Hopefully this film will have a positive impact on the community, it’s getting the local kids’ voices out there.”
The tutor added, “During lockdown there was a lot of stuff online and in the papers about kids causing havoc around the town, but this is giving the young people the voice back to the community to say ’we are members of this community and we have a right to be here too’.”
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT EDITION TODAY
and get access to our archive editions dating back to 2007(CLICK ON THE TITLE BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE)