Interaction programme to reduce litter through the education of young people
Street cleansing education initiative

Through education, team work and creativity, a programme to influence young people to be proactive against littering in our city. Its goal? Zero tolerance to litter.

Introduction

Our Aim

As Enterprise-Liverpool is in a joint venture with Liverpool City Council we understand our commitment to the local community and meeting their needs. A major concern to the City is that local people would like a cleaner Liverpool, not just to benefit residents but also to show the world that Liverpool is a cleaner, brighter, vibrant city that deserves its Capital of Culture status.

In order to meet the local community's needs for a cleaner Liverpool we have planned to provide a two pronged approach to the attack on litter.

• Our first method is to provide a quality service of street cleansing managed strategically in a manor which incorporates today's 24-7 lifestyle.
  
• Our second method is to help to educate young people within Liverpool and encourage them not only to not drop litter but also to encourage their friends and family to join in our team up to clean up campaign so as to achieve a cleaner Liverpool.

This report illustrates the work which is ongoing to educate local children and the integration of our "Culture Vulture" initiative.

The Culture Vulture

Through communication and the understanding of how children learn we have moved away from the traditional class room approach and in conjunction with our two great Football teams, community sections have developed a creative education programme.

In brief the culture vulture lives in the attic of the liver building and by stealth eats up all the discarded litter in the streets of Liverpool. Over the years this task has become too great and it's now in need of help to achieve its goal of zero tolerance. The local school children are presently participating in an art competition so as to design the culture vulture as nobody has ever seen it. The winning pupil will be rewarded with gifts from our football teams and the winning school will be rewarded with a substantial prize for their art department via enterprise-Liverpool. The culture vulture will then officially be born and will then be used as a symbol to promote various litter awareness programmes.

In order to get the children to think about the problem and to concentrate upon this subject Enterprise-Liverpool have devised another competition so as all schools can have their own individual identity attributed to the programme. They undertake a poster design to highlight litter and how to remedy its environmental impact. This is proving a great success with Roundworth Square and Saint Johns schools already having posters under sign construction. These signs will then be incorporated on the nearest roundabout to the school.

The method used to disseminate the information to the children of all school age is via early morning assemblies. Both Liverpool and Everton are already pro active in school visits via their community coaching projects. What we have done is basically bolted on an educational aspect to this programme, which is supported by both clubs chief executives. It is our belief that using football as the vehicle to drive this initiative through, will help achieve its success. It is then, following the children's commitment not to drop litter do the clubs undertake the coaching sessions. After the sessions the message is reiterated.

Liverpool have a rigid structure of presentation with all coaches standing at the front of the assembly hall with red cards each coach lifts the red card and vocally distributes an important social message i.e. show racism the red card and so on.

We have on our red card 'be a culture vulture'. In turn the head of the community programme delivers a message around the reasons as to why the children should become culture vultures and cross references the of tonnage of litter dropped on our streets per month to its location in depth and width if tipped on the pitch at Anfield. Additionally its impact on the environment where it is dropped.

Everton's approach is not as ridged and allows for more integration within the group however the same message gets across and it is equally affective.

The official venture was launched in January 2004 at Anfield comprehensive with officials from Liverpool, Everton and Enterprise-Liverpool in attendance the city council was represented by Councillor Paula Keaveney. The launch was a great success and the Echo ran an article on it. This was the official launch but the programme has been going since August 2003. We estimate that during this time some 6,000 children were visited.

Since January some 5,000 school children have been visited and the standard of art work received is exceptional. Everton football club announced in their programme on Saturday13th March the details of the initiative and also their proud involvement. They have also agreed for us to use the Everton crest on specially designed bin bags with an appropriate environmental message printed on them for use during and after matches and strategically placed for maximum affect. The community section will also use the bags in a practical clean up session after each coaching period.

Negotiations are underway for a similar scheme with Liverpool.

Who chooses the competition winner?

In order to have an independent team of judges Enterprise-Liverpool will be enlisting the help of council representatives to decide upon the winner.

Competition Two. Roundabout signs.

Why draw the sign?

This method is similar to competition one but it allows the children to think in a wider sense of what litter problem.

We have asked the children to draw a sign to be placed upon a roundabout near their school that highlights not only to children but also adults. This completion not only encourages the children to think about the problem and to not drop litter but it also allows the children to show their friends and families the drawing that the school has produced.

Who chooses the competition winner for the sign?

The schools will chose approximately 10 entries for this competition and Enterprise-Liverpool will determine which signs will go on the roundabouts.

Local Schools
Schools involvement in the aforementioned competitions has been very encouraging.
Enterprise-Liverpool has already received entries for both competitions from Broad Square Primary School and St Johns we are currently in the process of making two signs for roundabouts near their schools.

Media influence on education.
Enterprise-Liverpool has also used the media to spread the word about educating children not to drop litter. This has taken place in the Liverpool Echo and within Everton's programme at a local game that took place in March 2004.
As a special article and present for the children of St Johns School, Everton FC offered to include a picture of the school children all holding their drawings that they have entered for the roundabout competition. This encouraged the children and raised their enthusiasm for not dropping litter.

Above is the picture that has been included in the Everton FC programme for the home match March 04.

Encouraging community to unite in our aim for a cleaner Liverpool.
Enterprise-Liverpool as been in contact with several local groups that aim to improve local communities and cultures. Two main contacts have been Kirkdale community Group and Riverside housing group.

Both of these groups have taken the culture vulture project on and are spreading the word about the competition.

Kirkdale Community Group have chosen to make the Culture Vulture competition a part of their community project. In return one of our officers has given the group managers Health, Safety and environmental training. This was greatly appreciated. The scheme will involve encouraging the local children to team up to clean up and think about the local litter problems within Kirkdale. Therefore we are encouraging them to add a slogan to the picture using their group name for example Kirkdale Action Rubbish Team.

In order to be creative in educating children not to drop litter we have chosen to use local football teams to get the message across.

Liverpool Football Club.
Liverpool football club have actively encouraged the local children upon how they should act. They communicate this to the children in school assemblies and later in the year they will be conducting summer camps.

Above is a picture of children at a Liverpool Football club assembly.

Everton football Club.
Everton football club have recently started to include educating local children not to drop litter in their school assemblies and at their team coaching sessions

Hudson Primary School x2
Victoria Park
Goodison Experience, Goodison Park
Everton Youth Academy
Hope Park University sports centre
The Oval
St Edwards Collage x2
Deansgate lane

One major way that they will be able to communicate this message to children will be on the 19th May when Everton is hosting this year's celebrity charity football match. At this match we have the opportunity to hand out flyers and sticker to the children watching this event. Everton FC believes that they should give back to the community for all the money and support that they offer. Therefore Everton have embraced the task of educating children to look after their community and not drop litter.

Future educational projects
Enterprise-Liverpool is committed to and will continue to educate young people not to drop litter through several initiatives
.
Education through school assemblies with the football teams is currently in place and is expanding. Enterprise-Liverpool will continue to encourage the football teams to include similar projects within all aspects of their communications with young people.

Further media coverage of our education project will continue and encouragingly discussion about local news coverage is currently in progress.