Community

Putting our Public Purposes into action: Reflecting the UK's nations, regions and communities

What does this mean?

The BBC’s audience is made up of many diverse communities, based on geography, faith and shared interest. We make it our mission to reflect and connect with them all – through the content we produce and by meeting people face to face.

Through Outreach, we engage with these communities on a local level. By building relationships with different groups we aim to improve our service to them, and help the audiences we find hardest to reach to get the best out of us.

How do we do it?

For many people, Teesside will always conjure up images of steel-works and chemical plants. Middlesbrough’s Transporter Bridge was built in 1911 to carry workers between the town and Port Clarence.

In recent years, heavy industry has steadily declined to be replaced by digital innovation and science development. A century after it was built, however, the Transporter Bridge remains an iconic local land-mark.

To help the community celebrate this momentous anniversary, the BBC has been working with the University of Teesside on an animation project called “Bringing the Bridge to Life”.

With the BBC’s support, the University offered three days of workshops and talks for primary school children, which included sessions from Oscar-winning animators. Also, second year students at the University were asked to create a 30-second animated film to demonstrate the importance of the bridge and the role it plays in Teesside life.

A Century of Iron has been chosen to be developed further and now the BBC is looking for a musician (or group of musicians) to write a musical sound-track for the animation. Email outreach@bbc.co.uk if you’d like to know more.

We have students in the School of Computing from all over the world. Through this live project they’ll be learning all about Teesside’s industrial past ….it’s a real opportunity for them to immerse themselves in everything about this area.
Chris Williams, Curriculum Developer, University of Teesside’s School of Computing