Rhodes youngsters say it with spray

Rhodes Youth Club members show off their handiwork with artist Evan Barlow and Amanda Mullen from Rochdale Youth Service

Middleton youngsters have worked with a professional graffiti artist to transform a room in Rhodes Youth Club using inspirational words, phrases and a mural of hip hop legend Tupac Shakur.

The words and phrases were inspired by workshops held with youth workers from Rochdale Youth Service, where the teenagers discussed issues such as mental and physical health, healthy relationships, ‘legal highs’ and substance misuse.

Graffiti artist Evan Barlow, 24, was commissioned to aid the teenagers through art workshops that taught the proper spray-painting technique and helped them work as a team to complete the job.

Amanda Mullen, Youth Worker at Rochdale Youth Service, said: “This was a very positive exercise for our young people. They were really enthusiastic about the project and it helped them to develop some fantastic skills while learning how to promote good mental and physical health through workshops such as the Five Ways to Wellbeing.”

Youth club member Chelsea Knight, 18, said: “The room just had plain walls before, now it’s a great chill-out room. Evan helped with the outlines and we were all equally involved in colourising them.

“I’ve been coming here for five years. I get along with the staff, they teach a lot of positive things and we wanted to carry that on by leaving behind something for the younger members.”

Fellow member Alec Jones, 13, said: “We chose words like ‘respect’ because they are a positive influence and we wanted Tupac’s quote because we thought it was inspiring.

“There was nothing going on in here before, now my younger brother has already been inspired to draw his own Tupac picture.”