The Florrie sets sail with new community canal boat celebrating Liverpool’s waterways

Local TV

A much-loved Liverpool charity is expanding its work beyond land. The Florrie has taken over the Pride of Sefton community boat, transforming it into a floating classroom and creative space to connect people with the city’s historic canals.

Transcript

00:00For more than 130 years, the flurry's been at the heart of the Liverpool Eights community.

00:05Now the charity's extending its reach and its classroom onto the city's canals.

00:10We are working in the future to build affordable homes, which will be all around the flurry.

00:15And the company we're going to be working with, Savini Housing, had or owned the Pride of Sefton,

00:21which is a beautiful barge. It wasn't the most amazing condition, but it was a beautiful barge that they decided to donate to us.

00:28It is a charity, and they thought, well, what's the best thing we can do is give the boat to another charity.

00:34The flurries are formally taken over the Pride of Sefton, an independent charity and wide-beam community canal boat.

00:40Under the flurry's ownership, the boat's been transformed into a floating classroom and creative space

00:45designed to give young people, families and community groups a chance to explore Liverpool's historic waterways

00:51while engaging in learning and creative activities.

00:53I just see it as another great opportunity for us, and something so different.

00:57You know, with that extra little bit about it. So it's just a wonderful thing to have.

01:03So we're excited to have it, really. It's really a nice extra string to our bow.

01:08The flurry itself is based in a Grade 2 listed Victorian building, offering social, educational and cultural support across South Liverpool.

01:15The organisation runs the basement youth zone, adult community programmes, a community shop and cafe,

01:21as well as a year-round calendar of cultural, musical and artistic events.

01:24We run 40 hours of community activities every single week.

01:30That is for anybody to come along to, by the way.

01:32So we do that. We've been doing that for 10 years nearly now.

01:35The youth empowerment scheme grants help the flurry fund workshops and creative sessions aboard the Pride of Sefton for local young people.

01:42And we started off in the summertime by getting some kids, like teenagers, on board where they could do skipper training.

01:49So they came along and they were all excited. They didn't know what was going to be happening at first.

01:53And then, obviously, we gave them the opportunity to learn to skipper.

01:56And so we got them all working together as a little team as well.

01:59Got them off their phones and got them talking to each other as well.

02:03Funding for the initial phase of the project came from the Youth Empowerment Scheme,

02:08an initiative led by the Mergeside Police and Crime Commissioner and the Mergeside Violence Reduction Partnership.

02:14The scheme supports positive activities for young people to reduce the risk of involvement in crime or antisocial behaviour.

02:20So that was the idea behind it. That's part of the foundation as well, was to make it sort of a floating classroom as well.

02:26It's to get kids on here, activities, make it interesting, you know, somewhere different to go,

02:32instead of being stuck in a classroom, be going up and down Liverpool's waterways.

02:36You know, much more interesting things to see.

02:38And also, we do a lot of questions and information around that.

02:43So it could be, you know, about the waterways, the history, slavery, about, you know, obviously the Manchester Ship Canal.

02:50So there's all sorts of history and fascinating things that we talk about as well,

02:54that kids can learn as well at the same time.

02:56And they do listen and they do pick up on the information as well.

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