The Complications

• We have started with a 34 year old Land Rover that has been sat in a field in the rain for the last 14 of those 34 years.
• We made the positive decision to complete the restoration work with really basic tools i.e. a socket set, a spanner set, some screwdrivers, chisels, a blowtorch and a good selection of hammers. This means young people learn genuinely useful and transferable skills for maintaining a vehicle without spending thousands of pounds on equipment.
• Finding fantastic, accommodating partners willing to offer us workshop and storage space for a vehicle that’s 14′7″ long.
• The fact we have only got a single doorway into our workshop.
• Having groups of young people who have little or no mechanical experience and in some cases a very diverse range of disabilities and or behavioural problems.
• During a visit from Bertha Climbie and some representatives from the school we were told that the land Rover would be expected to carry far beyond the 12 seat capacity it has so we have added safety concerns.
• Last but not least how we get it to Africa?

The Young People

During the project the young people have done far more than just learn some mechanics. Many of them have had to overcome their own challenges including poor literacy (for reading manuals, using the internet etc.), being quite isolated and not used to working in groups or just never having used tools before. This has meant they have had to come up with innovative ways round such things for example young people have learnt to use a digital camera, download and then print out the pictures in reverse order this has meant they can dismantle an item like a carburettor and then reassemble it with any replacement parts required by following the images (skills that are transferable to many other areas).

More complex items like gearboxes have had to be meticulously stripped and every item inspected and labelled for future sessions and this information needed to be clear for other groups. Some young people have improved their communication skills so they can work in a group more effectively (many jobs require at least three hands!).

Young people have used the internet for research into parts and possible modifications to update the Land Rover. They have made phone calls to local businesses and grown in confidence in explaining the project i.e. where the Land Rover is going and then asking for a charitable discount (which they have been very successful in obtaining). Some of the young people have started accessing our basic skills workers for help with their reading and writing so they can be more confident when using manuals, the internet or even just the phone book.

Young people have had to learn skills including welding, panel beating, body work, accurate measurement, general mechanics, what safety equipment and precautions are needed to work with chemicals, what different styles of roll cage and safety equipment are available and debating skills around which would be the most appropriate to use, how to run planning sessions and prioritise their work load, how an internal combustion engine works and what can prevent it doing so.

Many of these skills are transferable to other areas of life and the knowledge behind them mean that should a young person find they need access to transport (be that a moped or a Rolls Royce) they can maintain it themselves and avoid being ripped off by a garage wanting to do unnecessary work. We have also had a lot of fun and the project has been a pleasure to be part of.

Project Progress

Although work has been progressing very well we still have a way to go to complete this project as it has only been in the last two weeks that the Land Rover has been the right way up and back on its wheels. Our partnership with BUMPs has been a massive asset to the project but we have just forged new links with GTA part of Hull Training that delivers the NVQ in mechanics and we hope to support some of our young people to start accessing their courses in the future. We still have challenges to overcome within this project but the way the young people have approached things so far I have no doubt that they will do a fantastic job and the Land Rover will arrive in its new home in 2010, however the biggest and most important debate is yet to come, what colour are we going to paint it?

Recently we have solved the problem of how to get the Land Rover to the Ivory Coast.

The parents of one of the young people involved in the project have recently taken over a haulage company and want to support the project because of everything their son has got out of it. This has meant the young people are now helping organise fundraising events and discussing what else we can put into a shipping container that would be useful to the school and how we get hold of it.

Young Person’s Comments; Josh.

A brief history of Josh: Until I came to The Warren my experience of education was that school was waste of time because I wasn’t really doing anything and the teachers didn’t try and help or do anything for me so I ended up just sat there doing nothing it was really boring. At school they never really tried to teach me and if I asked for help they just told me what to put, so in essays or tests they would just tell me the answers and not help me learn anything.

Since coming to do The Land Rover Project at The Warren it has been loads more fun, we get to have a laugh and they teach us stuff. I think the warren has given me more interesting ways of learning stuff and I like the way the teaching is made fit how I learn. I prefer doing stuff using my hands and that this is the type of thing I want to do when I’m older as I would like to become a mechanic. Doing my basic skills at The Warren has helped within The Land Rover project because I can read better and it helps when you try to use the manuals this makes the practical stuff easier because I can read explanations and instructions easier and then can go straight and try what I read.

I have really enjoyed dismantling and rebuilding this land rover. I have learned quite a lot about mechanical stuff. Being involved in stuff in the warren if you ask for help people are happy to give explanations and involve me. It feels good to help people in Africa. I think it will make a big difference (in Africa) because sometimes they have to travel miles to get to school and it will save all that walking, it means that people who live really far way can still get an education.

I think I am more likely to get the future I want from coming here than I was when I was going to school. Because we are finishing the project at GTA who do the NVQ in mechanics I would need to become a mechanic. If I was at school I wouldn’t have a chance of getting the qualifications I would need to get into college to do the NVQ but going in there I have a chance to prove myself and hopefully get an apprenticeship and I really want to take advantage of that opportunity.

I think the land rover should be easily finished in the next year and we are pretty much ready to put it back together. I can’t wait to see it all finished and ready to go but I know there is still a lot of work to do. Because I have only seen it put together on a picture I am really excited to see were all the bits we have fixed go. I will be really excited when it goes in for MOT to see if it passes and it will be satisfying to know we have done so much work and it has paid off for someone.