Young offenders help out at motor museum
Young offenders from Wiltshire are learning new skills helping at Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum in Calne.
The trustees of the museum have given up their time to work with, support and educate the young people by engaging them in constructive skilful activities.
The project is about providing quite demanding and controlled work experience developed around the every day working tasks that are needed to keep the museum presentable to the general public.
A presentation to award the young people with a certificate for their hard work took place at the museum on January 27.
Vice President of the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum, and ITV presenter, Chris Searle was at the presentation.
The certificates were presented by Ian Langley, head of Wiltshire Youth Offending Service.
The scheme was set up by Wiltshire County Council, North Wiltshire District Council, the Trustees of the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum and Wiltshire Police. Funding for the project came from the Wiltshire Community Safety Partnership.
Julie Higdon, Police youth justice worker at Wiltshire County Council, said: "The success of the project has been outstanding exceeding all expectations from my initial thoughts. The attendance and enthusiasm of the young people has been exceptional and well supported by the agencies involved."
An out-of-uniform Police Community Support Officer (PCSO), from either Chippenham or Calne supported by the Neighbourhood Policing Team, was present to help with tasks and engage with the young people.
Ali Duncan, a PCSO from Chippenham who attended some of the project days, said: “I’m pleased with the result so far, the project has gone really well and I would be happy to be involved again.”
The project started at the museum early November 2008 and ran until the end of January 2009.
One task the young people and trustees took on together was to erect a new shed to be used as a workshop. This gave them experience in construction skills, working as a team, and working to task and time.
Individual tasks, such as checking tyre pressure, are carried out one-to-one with a young person and a museum trustee. They then all come together to help with the bigger tasks such as the building of the workshop. These tasks help with numeracy skills and following instructions and boundaries.
Some other jobs the young people have been involved in include, felting the roof of the shed, putting up shelves, painting the shed and fitting electric for lights and plug sockets. They cleared shrubs and bushes from around the workshop area, and helped with general maintenance on old cars and bikes including makes such as Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar and Hillman Avenger.
Discussions are taking place about the possibility to develop the project and extend the training experiences to include non-mechanical activities, such as gardening, the museum administration and running of the café. It may also be possible to provide training qualifications in the future.
Although the majority of the collection is cars, the museum also houses an impressive collection of lorries, motorcycles, mopeds, push bikes, a large selection of vehicle manuals and other archive material, and a large collection of motor memorabilia.
The contents are varied, from a number of everyday classics, to rare cars and lorries. Amongst these are a 1934 Alvis Speed 20, a 1938 Daimler EL24 and a 1951 Dennis Fire Engine.
There are also a good variety of rare motorcycles, Triumph, Norton, Sunbeam and Indian to name but a few.