:: CWGC ::

Young offender at headstone.

Manchester Groundwork and Manchester Youth Offending Team put together an inspirational War Graves Project, working with the Imperial War Museum North. Young offenders learned about the servicemen and women who are commemorated, and talked to veterans before helping to clean up the cemetery. Finally, inspired by their involvement, they created their own artwork for a display.

(The young people who took part had not themselves damaged war graves, but had to do community work for other reasons.)

Here’s what one of them said:
‘I have been on the scheme for a few months now. It’s part of my licence to do some work with Groundwork. I crashed a car.

Every week I come here to the Imperial War Museum or to the graveyard. It’s a bit disrespectful what has happened at the church – people are chucking litter and there’s a bin right next to them.

It has stopped me from getting into more trouble. We looked at up the casualties on the Internet (at www.cwgc.org) to find out where the soldiers are commemorated and a little more about them.

It has been good to meet the war veterans because I have always thought of them as a lot older. I was going to join up before I started this project – but I am not now. I want to be an engineer instead. Being on the project has made me think. There are so many war graves, you don’t realise.’