Bringing People Together

Posted by The Live UnLtd Team In Community Cohesion.

We back lots of different kinds of projects at Live UnLtd, and something that links a lot of them is common result of the work they do – bringing people together.

When people are brought together it can be about making something great happen, and it can be about giving people a chance they might not have had elsewhere, or it can be about showing people that others believe in them and they have something to offer. Bringing people together can be a powerful thing.

We’re talking about projects being run by people who do just that this week, and so we thought we’d start by telling you about some of the projects we’ve helped to start who bring people together to make great things happen. Because why not? We’re proud of them!

The Fusion Project

Asha’s project provides performance arts workshops to help people learn new things and improve their chances of finding work. The free dance, rap and poetry workshops are there to give young people the kinds of opportunities they don’t have in their local area and something new and creative to concentrate their efforts on.

Here’s a track produced out of the project.

Find out the rest of Asha’s story here.

Bridges

Bridges has conducted a survey and found that 23 out of the 25 young people questioned knew someone who had been bullied for being part of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, and that 24 out of the 25 said there was no sex education advice given to LGBT young people during sexual education classes at school.

It was worrying results like these which encouraged Martyn David when he was setting up his Bridges project. He also wanted to try and change the negative images created in the press and news reports about LGBT, as well as the number of suicides related to the judgement that those in the LGBT community experience.

Read the rest of Martyn’s story here.

Sandwell Young Advisors

Mohammed Rohim (who prefers to be called Rohim) wanted to stop the segregation that he could see appearing in his area of Sandwell. He says, “there are certain sects of people in society who feel they are left out,” and for some people the answer may be to set up organisations specifically for this group, but in Rohim’s opinion, “what these organisations don’t realise is that the names of their centres segregate the community even more.”

He believed that these communities would benefit from being more integrated with one another. So he started his project to try and help make that happen.

Take a look at Rohim who joined us at Youth Enterprise Live.

Urban Fresh

Urban Fresh’s members meet once a week and attend monthly professional studio sessions, mentored by Stanley and Pawnell, aged 19, who will also offer ongoing support to participants.

“Creating music was something that always interested me so I thought I’d give it a go,” says Stanley of his own introduction to music making at age 16 at Wood End Youth Centre, known locally as ‘The Venny’.

Stanley, who uses the recording name ICEYStanley, readily recognises that his growing passion for music making helped keep him out of trouble. “Without it I wouldn’t be where I am now,” says the Birmingham University computer sciences student.

“Stanley has been lucky to find himself through music and to engage in positive activities as a result,” says Eva, his Live UnLtd Development Manager. “His project allows him to pass on his skills and educate and motivate other young people.”

Read the rest of Stanley’s story here.

Project Destiny

Project Destiny works with 11-17-year-olds in Rotherham to provide fun and safe events for them. “We didn’t just want to do an under-18s music event where people come along and dance,” says John Colley, Project Destiny’s founder. “Anyone can do that. We wanted to do something more, by getting them to create their own event.”

That’s where Live UnLtd came in. John’s Award provided not only the money to fund his first event, but just as importantly we gave him the support he needed because he had not run a project before.

“My Development Manager was always there when I needed him, which was great because writing a plan on paper and then doing it in real life are totally different things,” says John.

Read the rest of John’s story here.

Have these projects inspired you to start a project of your own?