Who are Silent Cities

Previous projects 

Intergenerational IT project – Neighbours Can Help/RMBC

A collaboration between three social enterprise start ups, us and Neighbours Can Help and SilenceBreakers, and Maltby Academy school, and funded by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. We recruited a group of young volunteers, aged 11-16, and helped them develop learning materials, then unleashed them on three groups of older people, to teach them how to get online. The course sold out. We had to run it three times. Check out our video to see the process and some pics from the first session. The results speak for themselves, highlights included: 100% of older people said that their opinion of young people had been improved by the project. Nearly half said the project made them feel less socially isolated. 91% of young people said their confidence had improved as a result of the project. You can see all the results in the results video, some of which was filmed by the young people. Boyed by the project’s success, the school have secured some funding to continue the project, and are hoping to open a drop in cyber cafe for older people, run by our young volunteers.

Comments towards the project

"This project has started to bridge the gap between generations, facilitated the transfer of important skills between residents, and brought the local community and statutory services together."

– Councilor Doyle, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council

User led film making – Roundabout hostel tour

Residents at Roundabout’s hostel for young people had identified the need for a ‘hostel tour’ on the Roundabout website. This was so that new residents would be more familiar with where to go, and less scared when they arrived. We worked with residents in a workshop to storyboard the film, then the residents did the filming the next morning. Many thanks to Sheffield talents Richard Hawley and The Unfortunate Incident for use of their wonderful soundtracks

Formally incorporated in March 2010. We are a grass roots organisation, that is driven and shaped by the need of the people we work with. We work with isolated and disadvantaged individuals and groups who do not have a voice and where appropriate, we help them develop skills to support them into work into the creative industries.