Preston youth group video is a sign of friendship

Kind-hearted youngsters have been keeping on track during their enforced time off school - by singing.
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Members of Preston Impact Group, made up of teenagers from across the city, and counterparts in Fylde, have been using their love of music to help spread a message of hope to their peers.

Worried about the affects of lockdown on young people, they have reworked the theme of a popular musical in sign language and made their own special video - which has now been viewed across the globe.

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The idea came from Hallie Brady , young voluntary youth worker with Impact Youth Groups, who decided back in May to try to get all the young people in the group together.

Members of Preston and Lytham Impact groups made a video in BSL to let people know they are not alone in lockdownMembers of Preston and Lytham Impact groups made a video in BSL to let people know they are not alone in lockdown
Members of Preston and Lytham Impact groups made a video in BSL to let people know they are not alone in lockdown

She said: "Wellbeing is an important topic to us as a youth group, so I decided it would be a good idea to create a video to a song that had really meaningful lyrics that everyone could relate to on some level.

"After settling on the song ‘You Will Be Found’ from Dear Evan Hansen, the musical, I put sign language to it and within about two days had managed to bring roughly 20 people onto the idea and they all started to learn the parts that I gave out.”

The 11-16 year olds, plus one six year old, learned and recorded their parts at home then Hallie put them all together to form the video.

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Hallie said: “ Hard work paid off on all angles and I felt so proud to see the final product. Through this project, we created a reminder for members of our groups, as well as members of the community, that nobody is ever alone.

Preston Impact is par of Preston Impact Groups made up of four different youth groups linked together:

Young Christian Workers,Preston Impact Group,Wicked Dynamic Youth and React Global Youth.

The project united three different groups, including youngsters from high schools in Lytham and Longridge through the power of a song, whilst also raising awareness of British Sign Language/Sign Supported English for the deaf community.

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Developing this further, Hallie said learning tsign language was enjoyable for many people within the youth groups and they are now looking to develop it further and hopefully cover basic, important signs so that the groups can be inclusive, and community aware.

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