Deaf teenager Ewan Brown makes music with Gameboy

Apr 26 2009 by Sam Wood, Sunday Sun

A chance for youngsters to shine

A WEBSITE set up last year aims to help schools, colleges and other groups for young people, like Ewan, show off their talents.

The Shine website www.shineweek.co.uk has a massive archive of talents uploaded by young people last year. The virtual “Wall of Talent” is now building for 2009. Young people can upload evidence of their talents as word files, picture files, sound files and video. They can blog, show work in progress, record themselves talking about their work or about the talents of their friends.

Carol Alevroyianni was involved in setting up the site. She said: “Every young person, like Ewan has a talent and hopefully he will be able to inspire more people to use theirs. This site can act as a great showcase for that.

“It is open to view by everyone who joins up. They can be young people or named adults who work with young people from schools, colleges, or other organizations.

“Over 350 organisations were signed up to Shine in 2008 including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Film Club, The Sage Gateshead.

“Nothing is published without an approved adult signing it off but students can upload their work from anywhere.”

Shine Week, from July 6 to 10, consists of thousands of separate events and celebrations held in and out of schools led by young people, teachers and youth organisations. Everyone is encouraged to show what they are great at throughout the week. Visit www.shineweek.co.uk to sign up.