Regular readers will remember the Damien Nettles Human Billboard project, mentioned on VB last month. Will has an update for us. Ed
It’s now over fourteen years since island teenager Damien Nettles went missing after a night out with friends in West Cowes.
To raise awareness of Damien’s disappearance as well as the issues surrounding the vast number of people who go missing every year in the UK, the YMCA vinvolved Project created its own campaign to generate awareness.
The Human Billboard Campaign saw two hundred and fifty young people island-wide wearing Damien Nettles t-shirts for ten days, in conjunction with a billboard image which was set up for same amount of time in the centre of Newport.
Support from students
YMCA vinvolved volunteers Sian Matthews and Hayley Nicholls, both students at Cowes High School, took leading roles in helping recruit volunteers from the Isle of Wight College between the 1st and 3rd of November, and the support for the campaign was evident in the two hundred volunteers they signed up.
Charlie Welman, 16, also from Cowes High, played a key role in the campaign, signing up a further fifty students. “It’s horrible to think that young local people do go missing” she says, “I think we all have a duty to look out for one another especially when we are aware that people are going through tough spells in their lives.”
Great support from the Island
The campaign was supported locally and nationally, working with Damien’s mother Valerie Nettles, the Missing People Charity and an island based company, King Textiles, which produced the t-shirts.
“We are so pleased with the positive response received by young people” said Kelly Matthews, YMCA Volunteering Project Co-ordinator who led the campaign. “The aim was to generate more awareness of Damien’s disappearance and issues surrounding why young people may go missing. With the run up to National Anti-Bullying Week (15th – 19th November) we also asked volunteers who signed up to the campaign to pledge to report any bully incidents that take place at school/college or the work place.”
If you are aged 16 -25 and would like to find out how you can be a part of future campaigns or other rewarding volunteering opportunities please contact Kelly Matthews, YMCA Volunteering Project Co-ordinator on 01983 861076 / [email protected].
