Mural designed by young people to feature around the City of Bradford
Bradford train station has been lit up with a brand new mural designed by teens on Bradford City Community Foundation’s ‘Keep Doing Good’ programme.
A group of 19 teenagers have taken part in ‘Keep Doing Good’ which is part of the National Citizen Service’s (NCS) ‘One Million Hours of Doing Good’, a wider pledge to enable teens to take an active role in helping the country recover from the ongoing impacts of COVID-19.
With Bradford having the fastest growing youth population outside of London, the group wanted to do some good that would highlight them in a positive way. They wanted to leave behind a legacy for years to come and they have done just that with this project.
They decided on creating a mural which would showcase the diversity of culture within Bradford whilst celebrating the work of the key workers who have supported the community tirelessly throughout the pandemic.
The group split into smaller teams, each working together on a design. The teams then had to face a ‘Dragons Den’ style pitch to a panel made up of representatives from Northern Rail, Bradford Council and Network Rail. The panel were blown away by the quality of the mural designs, so much so they refused to choose a winner. Instead they set the teams a new challenge of merging the murals together.
The teams then worked hard to merge the designs and decided to call the mural ‘We are Bradford’. Bradford City Community Foundation have been working in partnership with Northern rail since 2016 and so they have agreed to display this mural in Bradford train station to give a more positive feel to the station.
A young person from the team said:
“It’s really nice to see the work we did on week 1 come together… I can’t believe our design is going to be all over Bradford in different stations.”
Lizzie Saunders, NCS manager at Bradford City Foundation said:
“I am so proud of the work the young people have completed over two short weeks.
COVID-19 has brought so much uncertainty and disruption to the community, but the young people allowed this to motivate and inspire them to take part in real change in their community, and have truly demonstrated that they are an asset that should be celebrated in the district. I really hope the mural brings a smile to thousands of individuals who will see it every day, and encourage them to be proud of the diverse and wonderful community of Bradford”.
This was echoed by Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Healthy People and Places Portfolio Holder, who said:
“This brilliant work by local young people is very positive response to these incredibly challenging times. I applaud their energy, enthusiasm and creativity in creating this fantastic artwork which will no doubt lift people’s spirits.”
This Summer on NCS’ ‘Keep Doing Good’, young people from Yorkshire and The Humber have contributed nearly 20,000 volunteering hours to help tackle the challenges communities have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. To find out more about NCS ‘Keep Doing Good’ visit wearencs.com.
