Community Projects During the Pandemic
To say 2020 has been a challenging year in our sector would be an understatement but despite the challenges of carrying out our work during an international pandemic, we have been able to deliver a number of projects in the community and reach some young people with inspiring results.
Rugby Portobello Trust
During July 2020, we returned for a third time to Rugby Portobello Trust, a community hub in West London offering a key service. We delivered a socially distanced music project with 9 local young people all aged between 15-19. We wanted to get them thinking about topics and themes that were relevant to them and as a result, they created a great album of 11 tracks entitled ‘6 Days Of Magic’. One of the standout tracks was one entitled BLM addressing the Black Lives Matter movement
Rugby Portobello told us:
“Our Finding Rhythms workshop during the summer was once again a success. The young people who participated left each day with a drive to work extra hard on their talent. The staff leading on the programmes were engaging and positively giving feedback and words of encouragement. The young people they worked with were of similar ages but from different backgrounds. Having programmes like Finding Rhythms, helps a young person stay off the streets, an opportunity to master their talents and space where they can share this talent with others. The young people left with such confidence….. Thank you for another successful programme.”
Rugby Portobello
Sutton Integrated Youth Services
Sutton Integrated Youth Service is a statutory service offering targeted support to young people on edge of exclusion, those participating in risky behaviors, and care support.
In October 2020, we ran a 5 day project there where we worked with a small group of learners who worked together to create an EP of original songs. None of them knew each other beforehand, but they have since formed a positive peer group.
Sutton has a real absence of provision for young people so we were keen to work with them as we believe programmes like ours are important.
The feedback from Sutton Integrated Youth Service was great and we look forward to working with them again in the future.
“The sessions were delivered in a professional manner and all young people were made to feel relaxed by the Finding Rhythms practitioner, who was able to get the best of out of the group whilst also empowering them to have creative freedom which is something unique. The group had so much fun and couldn’t get enough and every single one is keen to do more with the team in the future.”
Staff
“It felt like a learning experience and a very enjoyable one and a very beneficial one at the same time. I feel like I did actually learn a lot”,
Learner
Only Connect
During September and October, we delivered another project with our regular partners Only Connect – a criminal justice charity based in Kings Cross, London. We worked with 6 young people who each created their own original music and also completed the work to be submitted for our new Princes Trust Qualification in personal development, employability, and teamwork. All the participants left on a high and excited about what they had been able to achieve.
Watch a video from two of the learners below:
We also ran a taster session with Hackney Quest who work with young people at risk in the borough and delivered a second taster session with Element who work with young care leavers in Southwark.
We look forward to working in the community much more in 2021.