Quarter 1 update from Richard Clark, TMC Chief Executive

Well, we are 8½ weeks into a new era – not just for TMC - but for all of the organisations and practitioners that have experienced significant change in their work and funding arrangements in recent months. There’s so much to learn about and navigate in the new landscape, I want to use this update to give our partners a flavour of TMC’s activities and ambitions in the year ahead.

For TMC, the new financial year sees the beginning of our new work with Arts Council England as the Bridge Organisation for the East Midlands (more about what this means below). We also continue a wide range of other partnerships and programmes that help pursue our mission. At the heart of these activities lies our core commitment to helping children and young people develop and apply their creativity through participation in cultural activity. Our priority work themes in TMC – of learning, leadership and enterprise – guide the focus and impact of this work and are creating some exciting new opportunities.

Arts Council England’s stated aim for the Bridge Organisations is to ‘connect young people with great art and culture’, an ambition that we really love. To guide this work in the East Midlands, we have just published the State of Our Region report. Produced in partnership with FOCUS Consulting, the report explores young lives in our region and how they currently connect with cultural activity (read it here: www.themightycreatives.com/page/Our-State-of-the-Region-Report/50). A number of priority areas for action are suggested by the report, and we will be talking more about these over the next few weeks to build our programme. We will also publish research from Dubit, who have helped us look more deeply into individual young lives. This work reveals important lessons about young people’s social and family lives, their passion for learning and refining their cultural skills, and the importance of ensuring effective routes to information and access across such a large rural, urban and coastal region. You can follow our developing bridge activity on Twitter #EMbridge.

Settling into our new role, a priority for me over the coming months is simply to see and learn from our partners’ work in more detail. I am exploring the region’s rich cultural provision for young people and families, meeting some organisations for the first time, and revisiting what others are achieving through their work. It’s a great pleasure to visit, learn and Tweet (@Richard_TMC) as I travel around the East Midlands, and I look forward to more mind-expanding experiences as I go. We have so much to celebrate and so much potential for the future.

In the field of learning, our traded service is currently delivering creative school development consultancy to school clusters across the region, addressing such vital issues as literacy, numeracy and pupil voice. We have also been delivering contracted work with Children’s Centres in North West Leicestershire and with Looked After Children in Nottinghamshire. Drawing from our heritage, and with so much changing in the world of education, this interface continues to be an exciting one and we look forward to reporting new activity as it unfolds.

Looking at leadership, we have started our first ever EU Youth In Action funded project, OurWorld. Building on pilot activity across the region, OurWorld starts with an exchange visit with young people from Central Denmark in July 2012. It then moves to deepen young people’s engagement in social action, by inviting them to identify, make films about and lead action on issues that are important to them in their communities. The European adventure is a new one for us, and we are thrilled with the opportunity.

In the area of enterprise, TMC is continuing to support young people’s socially enterprising activity through the Bank of TMC. We have just received a new set of applications from young entrepreneurs in Leicester and Leicestershire and hope to be announcing our new ‘investments’ before too long.  Put simply, the Bank backs great ideas and provides young people with start-up advice, practical and financial support for their new social enterprises. Currently in a pilot phase, we are looking for ways to extend impact across the region.  The Bank connects with the work we are doing with RIO (www.realideas.org), promoting the Social Enterprise Qualification across the East Midlands and East of England.

You can find out about these and our other programmes and partnerships – including Somewhereto_ , the Journals Project and Mobile TMC – on our web site: www.themightycreatives.com

I want to end on a heartfelt thank you. As our work has evolved, so has the staffing structure at TMC. Many of you will know that we have been through a significant reorganisation following completion of the Creative Partnerships programme last year. Such work is never easy, and I want to congratulate my Board and every member of Team TMC on the way they have used their creative skills to see the process through. Thank you to everyone – past and present – who has helped TMC secure our position for the future. You can find out about our current team on our web site. We look forward to connecting and working with you.

Proposed Young People's Enterprise Centre

You might have seen the following article in the Leicester Mercury -
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/pound-1-2m-expansion-Cultural-Quarter/story-16062367-detail/story.html

The article relates to The Mighty Creatives’ planning application to develop a Young People’s Enterprise Centre and mixed use creative venue in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter. This is a really exciting project for The Mighty Creatives and builds on our commitment to supporting young people in Leicester and across the East Midlands to develop their creativity through learning, leadership and enterprise.


The planning application is one important step in realising this ambitious 2-year project which is in its very early stages of development. Over the next few weeks and months we will be working with our partners in Leicester City Council and elsewhere to raise the funding for the Centre and will be applying to a range of sources to help do so. 


We are also developing a suite of support services for young people's enterprise skills - including promoting the Social Enterprise Qualification in partnership with the Real Ideas Organisation (www.realideas.org) and ongoing activity to back young people's great business ideas through our pilot programme, The Bank of TMC, with Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council. We will be reporting on progress with all of these activities as we go along. Look out for updates on our website (www.themightycreatives.com) and social media.


Any potential partners or funders interested in working with The Mighty Creatives on these initiatives should contact: Caroline Cooban, Development Director, The Mighty Creatives:  CarolineC@themightycreatives.com

The Apprentices First Month at TMC

The Apprentices have been writing blogs at every milestone of their time at The Mighty Creatives, and as they reach their first month we upload their stories. 

Kate Smith-Atherton, Community Arts Apprentice

I have been a member of the TMC team for a month now, although it has been very enjoyable, I can honestly say it has been quite challenging too. Over the past month as well as my induction, I have also attended a number of meetings. If I am being honest, at first a lot of what was said in these meetings went completely over my head, and I felt like I would never get my head around things, but now I feel that I have just about got to grips with everything, including the abbreviations used. Of course there are still things I don’t have complete understanding of, and there is a lot more to learn, but the support from the TMC team has been brilliant so far, and I am confident it will stay that way. It’s nice to know that if I ever have a problem regarding the work I am doing there is always at least one person I can talk to who will offer me advice, and help me out the best they can.

As well as the meetings, I have been to a few events, some of these events include; a creative and connected conference/workshop day, a morning at a sure start centre, and a poetry workshop. I have also had lunch a couple of times with the whole team to welcome new members of staff; this too included myself at one point. As well as this, I have registered/enrolled with Leicester College, and I am beginning to put my portfolio together. I have also recently been given a few roles that are my responsibility, these roles are something I am really keen to have responsibility for, some of these include; booking rooms for meetings and travel for other members of TMC, being a part of the Our State Of The Arts project (which I am currently trying to organise a ‘flashmob’ event for) and I am constantly researching new things that I think would be useful for the other members of TMC to know, or information we could use. I have got a few other tasks I will be helping out with/getting involved with in the following months too, these I am also really excited about and keen to be a part of.

Even though I have only been here for a month, the amount I have learnt, and the things I have been involved with really are more than I expected. In the future, I wish to continue working with communities helping them to engage in the arts and culture around them, not just in Leicester, but maybe even in other countries as well. If I can learn and be a part of as much as I have already four weeks, then I am really looking forward to what the future holds. The community arts apprenticeship I am doing is what I have always wanted to do, it is meaningful and important to me, and I am truly thankful to have been given the chance to be a part of TMC.

Ben Tuddenham, Finance Apprentice

6 weeks on and I feel a lot more settled and at home into the company, due to having a much better understanding of the job I am doing, and being given the responsibility of seeing them through alone.

A few weeks ago most of the office went out for a meal and a few drinks after work, this was a great chance to get to know people outside of work in a social environment, and as such I got to know a few people I hadn’t had a chance to speak to properly, and learn new things about others.

The following Friday I got my first day out of the office! I went to Nottingham to the Creative and connected 2 event, to get a better insight to what TMC do and who they work with, this was an eye opener for me as before this I wasn’t really sure about what TMC actually did on the front line! And again this was also a good chance to speak to some of my colleagues more and get to know them.     

 I am now first point of contact for the finance team, and as such I get a lot of ‘where is our money?’ calls from suppliers, I can now quickly track down the right invoice, and tell them if it has been paid/why it hasn’t/when it will be paid. I also have responsibility of processing invoices, from the first step of them coming in the post/email, right through to actual payment, I do every step apart from coding the invoices to the correct budget, which is something I want to learn soon so I can do the whole task!

My first 6 weeks at TMC has been a great experience and a steep learning curve, which I have enjoyed thoroughly, and grasped with both hands as it’s a great opportunity. Writing isn’t my favourite thing, so I have put together a table of random figures from my first 6 weeks instead!

Invoices paid	170
Stamps stuck	82
E-mails e-mailed	232
E-mails received	569
Teas drank	180
Words written in procedures	2765
Cheques written	87
Inches of subway consumed	78
Weight of cake consumed	4 tonnes
Graze boxes distributed	30
Total distance travelled wheeling around on chair	2.8 miles
Minutes spent on hold to o2 listening to Gary Newman – Cars	Too long

First week insight from our fab new Apprentices

The Mighty Creatives recently recruited Apprentices to support our business. Here is an account of how they found their first week with TMC.

Kate Smith-Atherton, Community Arts Apprentice

Wednesday 21^st March 2012

Morning

During my first morning at TMC, I arrived at 10am, where I met Jackie and Daisy for the first time. Over a cup of tea, I had a chat with Daisy about what TMC is, does, and aims to achieve. We also spoke about myself, why I wanted to work for TMC, and also what I was doing before I came to TMC.  After this Daisy lead me to the office, where I was shown where my desk was, I was shown the shared drive and how to access it, I was also shown how to read, send and reply to emails. I was introduced to Yammer, the TMC website and also asked to create an Avatar. Before lunch I was shown around the office, and introduced to the rest of the team, as I went round each member of staff introduced themselves and told me what their role is at TMC.

Afternoon

I went to lunch with the rest of the team, we went and had an all you can eat buffet chinese, here I spoke to members of staff on a more personal level about themselves, and everyday life. After lunch, with Jackie, I went through contracts, the EE form, we also discussed holiday and I was given documents to read on procedures and policies of TMC. I was then given a tour of the building by Daisy i. e the café, outside, toilets, kitchens etc. I was also told about and shown where the fire exits are and where we meet when the fire alarm goes off. For the rest of the day, I spent a couple of hours reading through the TMC website, as well as looking at a few documents from the shared drive i. e notes on meetings, and presentation notes etc.

Thursday 22^nd March 2012

Morning

During the morning, I was asked to catch a train to East Midlands Park Way, here I was met by Emma who then drove us both to Castle Donington. When we got to Castle Donington, we made our way to a parent and child event at Sure Start Children’s Centre. Here we met up with Sam, and also another member of staff who worked at the centre. We were there to observe one of the events that took place every week. In the centre there was a room which had different activities set up for the children. These consisted of ‘the black and white corner’ which was full of different fabrics, pillows, and objects which were only black and white. There was a water pit full of water and bubbles, trays full of ripped up coloured paper, and newspaper for collaging, pots, pans and spoons for the children to make noise, and also a couple of plastic pipes for the children to roll balls down. Slowly the children turned up with their parents. After a while, me and Emma joined in with the children and their parents, I ended up playing in the water pit with the children, getting splashed and covered in glitter (as one child, then all of them decided to put glitter in the water pit). We then had a break, a cup of tea and the children had a drink and a snack. Afterwards, each child was giving a tub of bubbles, we then went outside and started blowing these. We left a few minutes into this, and drove back to TMC’s office. Once back in the office, me, Emma and Ben then met with Ruth and a couple of her colleagues to enrol/register us with Leicester college. The meeting took a couple of hours, we filled in forms, discussed the apprenticeship scheme, talked about goals, and were given tasks to complete by the next meeting. I then had lunch.

Afternoon

For the rest of the afternoon I spent it reading through my policies and procedures documents, I filled in some forms regarding emergency information, bank details etc. I then did some reading upon Arts Award, and a few other bits on the TMC website.

Friday 23^rd March 2012

Morning

I attended a bridge planning meeting, this lasted all day. During the morning session we talked about the bridge, goal 5, NPO’s, organisations, partnerships etc. We then went round and explained what we each thought our job role was, as I had never seen my job role this was quite difficult for me, but i think I did okay. After this, we were then given a piece of paper with each other’s job description on it, we had to read the job description, decide on who’s job we had, and then feedback what we thought this persons job role/main tasks were. I found this task very useful and helpful in relation to understanding what me and everyone else did. Before lunch, we did a fun activity, which was called ‘head, heart, hands’ we had to write down what we knew, what we were passionate about and what we could do, basically what we thought we could bring to TMC through knowledge, belief and skills. This was also very helpful and enjoyable.

Afternoon

The afternoon was spent going through what each person/team was working on, and what we aimed to achieve by doing it. This involved everyone speaking, writing down ideas, and planning what was eventually going to happen. Basically a starting point for us all until our next development meetings. We went through a work programme and we allocated leaders for the time being for each action, this was a big help.

Monday 26^th March 2012

Morning

For the first part of the morning I wrote up my notes from Fridays meeting. I then had a safe guarding and equal opportunities with the other apprentices. Straight after this I met with Mary and Daisy to update Daisy on Fridays meeting (as she wasn’t present). We discussed the tasks we had been allocated, and I was given a couple of tasks to do before our next meeting. After this, I had a meeting about standards and equality and also the somewhere to programme. I was also given a task to do which related to the somewhere to programme.

Afternoon

I started the afternoon off by starting the task I had been given by Vikki for the somewhere to programme, this was to research and write down any events that are happening over the next year that we could attend to promote somewhere to. Towards the end of the afternoon I had a HBR standards and award meeting, here we did some more planning, I then finished off by carrying on with research.

Tuesday 27^th March 2012

Morning

Throughout the day I was asked to shadow Sophie and Dan, before doing this though I completed the tasks I was given by Mary and Daisy; typing up notes, creating our own plan chart etc. I then went to a meeting with Sophie about the DMU framework evaluation, followed by another meeting about the framework evaluation, this was to put the participation teams views across. We then had lunch.

Afternoon

After lunch, I had a meeting with Dan about Our State Of The Arts, he introduced me to the programme and website, and asked for my help on a presentation he had to give. I helped him by finding good, strong, positive and negative quotes young people had written on the website about an art or cultural event they went to. I really enjoyed this. For the last hour of the day, I had an introduction to Journals and Mobile TMC.

Ben Tuddenham, Finance Apprentice

Hi, my name is Ben and I am the Finance and Administration Apprentice at The Mighty Creatives. I applied for this role as I wanted to get into a career in finance/accounting, and it seems to be a great opportunity.

I have been involved in all sorts of tasks relating to the role, such as processing invoices and expenses, and assisting with the supplier payment run. I am now beginning to understand and take responsibility for the tasks I have been given.

I have met most people in the office now, and everyone seems to be very welcoming and friendly (I’m sure the people I have not yet met are just as fabulous). I have been

taken out for lunch (twice), to get to know my colleagues, which makes it a great place to work!

I have really enjoyed my first week here and am getting on well with both my work, and colleagues, and I’m looking forward to what the future holds!

Being a TMC Intern - Bekki Broadbent

In my application to be an intern with The Mighty Creatives, I stated that I wanted this opportunity because I wanted to learn how a real company works. I wanted to have first-hand experience on all the cogs in the machine, and to come away with a sense of knowledge about everything I have experienced.
I have been an intern for a month now, and have successfully had experience in different sectors within TMC. I have had experience in the hiring of new staff, both from application reading to interview days. This experience from the hiring point of view has given me a good insight into what a company is looking for which will be helpful considering I am graduating in 3 months’ time.

I also have helped out with the branding in terms of giving my opinion on the template of the new website, and seeing TMC liaising with other companies within the LCB. It’s good to see the companies working together, and also really good to see how much creativity is in one building! Being in this environment really makes me feel at home.

I also have been given a taster of running an event, and all it entails from the planning, to the venue booking, to generating interest for all those involved, in 5 weeks with a £1,000 budget. I have learnt a number of things, the two main ones being that:

1) People happily cancel on you at any time
2) People generally don’t reply

Having assumed people would reply, this has made the initial plan need to be incredibly flexible and also includes a lot of waiting to hear back from people. This is a huge learning curve in how it is to plan an event for a company as opposed to for a university piece.

I hope to get plenty more experience in different fields, and maybe spend some days sitting in and learning about how different sectors work.

Bekki

Insight from TMC Intern - Sarah Whitrick

Hi, my name is Sarah and I am an intern at The Mighty Creatives. The reason I applied for an internship with TMC is because they are so flexible and offer lots of great opportunities; it’s like having your own tailor-made internship. My interests are working with young people (particularly early years) and the Community. Getting an internship with TMC was great because I get to do what I want. The team, particularly Ben and Daisy, were brilliant in offering me opportunities and experiences that they think may interest you. They really make my internship feel personal, like it is centred around what I want rather than what TMC wants.

I have been an intern for over 2 months now and I’ve already done so many things and had so many opportunities. This includes working with Hazel, who specialises in Early Years and planning and training to carry out confidence-building workshops with young people – something of which I am really excited about. I go in to the TMC office every week on a Wednesday – the time always goes too fast! At the moment we are working on the workshops with a view to carry them out in the next few weeks. However, my internship does not just stop there. Daisy and Ben are constantly offering me exciting and unique projects and experiences that they think will interest me. For example, I am applying to a Young Workshops Leaders Scheme with Curve at the moment; something which was made accessible to me through TMC.

I get so much out of my internship that is constantly developing my skills as well as giving me great things to write on my CV. The workshop training I am receiving will eventually allow me to run a workshop under supervision with young people. Another brilliant thing about my TMC internship is that the team are never hesitant to help me with my University studies. They are a continuous source for resources and knowledge they are always willing to help me in any way that they can. Not only this, TMC gives me the freedom to get involved with the organisation. For example, during my first week of the internship, I got to help make improvements to the TMC office as well as offer advice on how to update the website. Most weeks, it hardly feels like an internship at all; I have been made so welcomed by everyone that it feels like I am a part of the team too!

Sarah Whitrick, DMU Performing Arts Student

Why Apprenticeships?

Did you know that over 46,000 people work in creative and cultural industries in the East Midlands and that this figure is expected to grow by 35% in the next 8 years….?

Were you also aware that currently over 60 % of the creative and cultural workforce in the region are graduates and that according to recent figures the number of registered Creative Apprenticeships in the East Midlands doesn’t even reach triple figures?

With yesterday’s disheartening news that unemployment for 16 to 24 year olds is currently at its highest level for 17 years with 1 in 5 young people nationally not able to find a job; TMC is even more committed to working within the sector to support the development of high quality, accredited apprenticeship in the creative and cultural sectors in the region. Not only are we currently in the process of setting up 3 apprentices working with Leicester College and New College Nottingham, and a further 6 creative apprentices with creative and cultural organisations in the East Midlands, but working with the National Skills Academy - Creative & Cultural, our ambition is to provide high quality mutually beneficial employment opportunities for young people in arts venues, festivals and cultural organisations.

Read about the 10 myths to creative apprenticeships here:
http://nsa-ccskills.co.uk/news/ten-myths-about-creative-apprenticeships-updated

During February we are hosting a series of events for colleagues in the sector to find out more about the services offered by the Skills Academy and bring together arts and cultural organisations and employers, Founder Colleges and other educational settings together to discuss, collaborate and build creative solutions to local issues.

For more information about the National Skills Academy events visit http://www.themightycreatives.com/information/sector-development/skills-academy/ or contact Vikki Pearson vikki@themightycreatives.com.

And look out for more exciting news about TMC’s new apprenticeship opportunities in the next couple of days ….

What's happening? Next steps for The Bank of TMC.

The last three months or so have been a really key period in the development of The Bank. We've been able to:

• support to our first 5 social enterprises to complete their business planning, register their new businesses and start trading
• raise the quality of our business development support, communications and marketing, by bringing on board new delivery partners
• extend our work with our Mighty Teams of young advocates and young investors 
• adapt our 'offer' and build our networks to work with young people who are not in education, employment or training, or who are at risk of being so
• work with consultants to create our 'case for support' to attract donors and philanthropists to support the Bank
• complete our plans for the wider 'roll-out' of The Bank of TMC in 2012

Central to this progress has been our new partnership working, which has enabled us to focus on the quality of our programme, particularly as it relates to the business development and mentoring offered to young social entrepreneurs. We've worked closely with Kate Cowan from Spring to Action to devise the bespoke programme of development, support, mentoring, training and inspiration that will be available to our new cohort of young entrepreneurs from March 2012.

In addition, we have also brought on board Louisa Day from digital communications agency Herdl and freelance whizz Adil Jaffer to collaborate with our team of young advocates on a new suite of marketing tools that will help The Bank 'speak' directly to our different target audiences - inspiring young people to get involved; explaining the benefits and possibilities to teachers, youth workers, parents, community activists, volunteers and all the other people in Leicester Shire we need to reach.

Our 'Ideas Generation' strand taking place in February, will give us the chance to test the thinking behind our revised programme of support, working with young people who are NEET and the agencies who support them including Connexions and Youth Offending / Probation Teams.

January and February will see the interim reports from our first group of young social entrepreneurs - their chance to let us know how their businesses are making money, empowering people and communities and trading responsibly.

Between now and March, the team will continue to develop our work on fundraising and promoting our offer, with a particular focus on how we can extend our collaborative work with the Mighty Teams of young people that help lead the Bank of TMC and inspire their peers. While there is much to be done and many challenges coming our way through austerity and general down-heartedness, we feel that we can continue to make a positive difference for and with young people.

2012 blog post from TMC Chief Executive

There are many blogs from Chief Executives at the start of 2012. They assess the world of children and young people, the social and economic challenges facing the country and opportunities in the year ahead. I want to focus a little closer to home, looking at what we have achieved in our first 3 years of being The Mighty Creatives and to look at what’s coming next.

Starting in 2009, we secured responsibility for Creative Partnerships in the East Midlands and rapidly developed a rich portfolio of additional programmes with the MLA, Big Lottery and other funders. This broad and ambitious body of work has given TMC and our partners the opportunity to engage with:

• Over 75,000 children and young people
• Over 350 schools
• Over 5,300 families/parents
• Over 4,500 teachers/creative practitioners
• Over 1,100 participants from community groups

[Source: “Evaluation of The Mighty Creatives”, November 2011, FOCUS]

As many of you will be aware, Creative Partnerships came to an end in the Autumn of 2011, concluding £6.9m of investment in the region’s schools and creative economy between 2009 and 2012. At our recent “Creative & Connected” open space event in Derby, delegates asked the question: “Was Creative Partnerships worth it?” The answer appears to be: “Creative Partnerships was definitely worth it! But we collectively want to ensure that the legacy is accessible and the knowledge and learning is not lost.” Now that we have undertaken the complex task of closing this world-leading programme, we will turn our focus on its legacy, evidence and impact.
But we have needed to secure and change TMC first.

In 2011, we were successful in securing Arts Council England’s new Bridge role, joining Arts Council’s national portfolio to help meet its goal of ensuring every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts and culture. Starting on 1st April 2012, we will work with artists, arts and cultural organisations to help develop their work with children and young people to ensure more children and young people experience the benefits of the arts. In order to get ready for this position, we have worked with Arts Council and our development partners, Arts Learning East Midlands, to agree what needs to be done. We have also needed to restructure our organisation, resulting in a number of loved and valued colleagues leaving TMC in 2012.

Preparation for the Bridge starts now with a period of fact-finding, intelligence gathering and analysis about the state of the arts in the region and what the priorities should be for enabling broader, deeper and higher quality access for more children and young people. Karen Birch will be leading this work as our new Programme Director and will be communicating with our partners very soon about these initiatives and opportunities.

Alongside our Bridge building work, TMC will also pursue Planet TMC, our business strategy focused on young people’s creativity in all its forms. 2012 will see us making a significant contribution to the Cultural Olympiad through somewhereto_, Journals, Big Dance, Dress the World and WEYA. We will also advocate for young people’s participation in enterprise through our work on the Bank of TMC, provide vocational training through Mobile TMC and promote the new Social Enterprise Qualification. Our work with learning settings continues through collaboration with a number of school clusters across the region and the direct delivery of services in Nottinghamshire and Northwest Leicestershire. And our commitment to empowering young people to make positive change happen strengthens through the launch of our MyWorld platform and associated leadership programmes.

If we had a New Year’s resolution, it would be twofold: to help more children and young people influence our organisation; and, to establish stronger collaborations with our many partners in the region and beyond. Despite the challenges around us, our combined passions can deliver even greater results for children and young people in 2012. And that isn’t a bad way to start the year.











Richard Clark
Chief Executive, The Mighty Creatives

Takeover Day 2011 at The Mighty Creatives

Three young people joined TMC on 11.11.11 in our second year of Takeover Day. Takeover Day gives children and young people the chance to work with adults for the day and be involved in decision-making.



Children benefit from the opportunity to experience the world of work and make their voices heard, while adults and organisations gain a fresh perspective on what they do.

This year ...
Ben Kingston (Participation Manager) has been taken over by Anas Mohamed aged 13 years who attends Rushey Mead School

Sophie Baczynski (Programme Coordinator) has been taken over by Barnaby Nyombi aged 13 years who attends Lancaster School

AD Durnin (Project Manager) has been taken over by Zara Akram aged 14 years who attends Madani High School

See how they've got on below:
Hello my name is Anas Mohamed and I’m here for takeover day. Takeover day is a chance for young people to take over an adults job. For example I will be taking over Ben Kingston Hughes job for the day and he is a participation manager at the mighty creative also known as the TMC. My day started of by meeting two friendly people Manisha and Sophie. They introduced us to the peoples jobs we were going to take over and filling us in on what we are going to be doing today. They took us upstairs and introduced us to Ben and AD. Ben was who I was going to be for the day. Ben has a really cool job, his job is that young people get involved in the mighty creative work and the work of others. Manisha and Sophie gave us Ipads that were just delivered so we could open them up and put covers on them. After that we were shown around the office and we were shown our desks and our computers. We were introduced to jass from rare, she is a graphic designer and she wanted our opinion on a web page she is coming back and if it is liked then she will so I hope I it is successful. We went to the old library on belvior street which is now an adult education centre and a photograph gallery. The pictures were great but there was an amazing sand sculpture which was very fascinating. We just had lunch which was very belly bursting and met the rest of the workers and im just going to watch a storyteller which is apparently brilliant. I would like to thank the team TMC and this brilliant opportunity. :P

Hi, I am Barnaby Nyombi and I am on the takeover day 2011.I have taken over Sophie’s Job and right now I have just had lunch. The day so far has been great. Everyone has been really friendly since the moment I got here. First when we were designing the new Journal website for ‘The Mighty Creative centre’ there was lots of ideas and now I am waiting to see if our plans our successful and will look right for the final cut. When we went to the Library it was very interesting and the art was just amazing. From the sand made sculptures to the photography of the trained Leicester mercury photos. We were interviewed by three other takeover people, my one’s name was Thaisle. For lunch we had Domino’s pizza. Nearly all of it was gone by the end as it was very nice pizza. Now I am just writing this blog, waiting to see our website ideas put into a design, I hope it turned out ok, as so far, it has been a good day. ;)

Hi my name is Zara Akram, today I have been taking over the Journals and the mobile TMC. Today has been pretty amazing because there have been many activities going on for example we were able to create our own web page which I was fascinated by, we also went to the old central library which was really great, when we were there we had been interviewed by other students who were doing takeover day, they asked some interesting questions about what we would get out of this experience, why we chose this specific job to takeover and how this job will help me . After today I hope to build my confidence, become a bit more understanding of the other different roles s which will help me in the future. I have really enjoyed taking over Journals and the mobile TMC because it is different and I am glad that I am working here for the day.

Listen to them share their day at:

http://www.ipadio.com/phlogs/JohnCoster/2011/11/11/Takeover-Day-Leicester

Arushi finds somewhereto_ curate

Arushi Patel, TMC's enterprise assistant work placement, unlocked Pedestrian Arts Gallery as a somewhereto_ curate.


The fine art graduate curated a young people's somewhereto_ exhibition called 'Our Voices'.


The collaborative exhibiton aims to raise questions around the notion of student voice. Young people from Leicester have produced the beautiful artwork which will spur on conversations about the positive and negative experiences with student voice.


Arushi, who will be staying with TMC until she jets off on her travels in February 2012, said, "After 3 years of not doing anything with a canvas, it was quite the learning curve putting up five canvas' in a day! I really enjoyed being back in the arts environment and the space looks good which is most important!"



The artwork is produced by Merdeka French, Dev Navekar, Shiv Navekar, Arjun Parmar, Dipesh Parmar, Vivek Patel, Kimberley Symmons.
Photography by Sophie Lewis.

Find out more about somewhereto_

TMC and Lincolnshire One leadership residential

Ten young people will join The Mighty Creatives on Sunday (October 23) for the first leadership residential in partnership with Lincolnshire One at Priory Academy LSST.

The 14 to 18 year-old young people will learn team building, leadership skills and festival programming and management and take part in practical digital art workshops.


There will also be the opportunity for the young people to enjoy the Frequency Festival with access all areas pass for the duration of the festival October 21-29.

Lincolnshire One identified a need for young people to become more involved in collaboration and key decision-making for the county arts sector and has obtained funding to offer this leadership and skills development programme in partnership with TMC.



Following the residential young people will be offered the opportunity to access a mentor from the arts and cultural industries who will be happy to offer advice, guidance and, possibly, access to volunteering or apprenticeships.



During the residential participants and TMC will be tweeting about they are getting up too and photos and films will be uploaded to the Be Mighty Be Creative blog after the event.

Prime Minister applauds somewhereto_

Prime Minister, David Cameron, hopes to inspire more businesses to open spaces for young people after unlocking No.10 for young people to free run, perform and practice boxing.


Inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, somewhereto_ is a nationwide project to help young people find the space they need to do the things they love, within sport, culture and the arts.


 
 
You'll find out more about this story on the TMC website.

Ignition* Celebrations and Lab 13 launch

Last month, we helped celebrate and showcase the work by pupils involved in Ignition*.  This is a four year programme of creative approaches to the learning and teaching of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), involving teachers, students, parents, artists, scientists, inventors, designers, engineers, film-makers, writers and journalists. Ignition* is being delivered by Ignite! in collaboration with The Mighty Creatives, and funded by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda).September brought the final event under the Ignition* banner; a celebration event, to bring together all the strands, the people we’ve worked with and the fantastic STEM work that has been achieved over the last four years.



The event lasted three days, and involved over 400 people. On Sunday 11th September, we brought all the Creative Sparks back together, including the original Ignite! Creative Sparks, for a reunion, and future planning day. Joined by Sian Prime and Kate Andrews, along with the Creative Sparks mentors, all the Sparks shared their recent creative STEM based work, and this was followed by sessions on utilising social media by Kate Andrews, and developing a business model, by Sian Prime. It was a fantastic day, and reinforced to all who attended the importance of the Creative Sparks community, and how it must be maintained and used to its full advantage to continue the creativity and innovation that comes from this inspiring group of young people.

Monday was a day to celebrate the involvement of the regions schools, who have participated in Come Alive with Science, Invent and Sci Art Fusions. 12 schools brought along presentations to show what impact Ignition* has made to their STEM learning. These presentations included films, displays and PowerPoint’s, and all showed a huge variety of fantastic STEM learning, and involvement of lots of pupils. Pupils who attended were also invited to take part in a number of drop in workshops, which included building an Alien Robot, and contributing to a Wall of Mouths! It was a fantastic celebration of the hard work and efforts the schools who have worked with Ignition*, and a fun day for all involved!

For the final day of the Celebration Event, we hosted an East Midlands STEM Partnership Forum Event. With keynote speeches from Simon Collins from Caterpillar, and Graham Legg from Harry Carlton School, the audience and panellists discussed STEM in education and business, and bridging the gap effectively. Following the Forum Event, Tuesday afternoon was taken up with our Lab 13 showcase event, where all our six Lab 13’s attended, with most bringing things to show or demonstrate. Our original Lab 13, Dovecote Primary school, kicked off the afternoon with a demonstration (and audience participation!) of a human ice cream machine, followed by a quiz on ice cream! Other Lab 13’s invited guests to come and see their displays, and explain about their own Lab, and what happens in it. Tuesday afternoon was a fantastically busy afternoon, with lots of children handing out their own business cards, leading in science experiments, and networking with each other!


The Celebration Event was a fantastic collection of some of the great achievements that have come from Ignition*, and it was a pleasure to celebrate with the schools and young people who have been involved, some from the very beginning.


Elizabeth Woodville School (EWS) – Lab 13 launch


Earlier this month saw the launch of a new Lab 13 at the Elizabeth Woodville School (formerly Kingsbrook College). The Lab 13 at EWS is the sixth Lab 13, and will be the final Lab 13 under the Ignition* programme. The launch day was fantastic, and we were joined by some local primary pupils, and other students from the school, who all took part in various STEM related activities; making bath bombs, analysing bacteria on fingertips, and creating an erupting volcano, to mention a few!

The Lab 13 is new for the school this year, and so the Management Team are just getting started with their responsibilities and development of the Lab. We are really excited to see how the Lab develops, and we’re very pleased to welcome EWS to the Lab 13 family!

Learning clusters go mobile

We’re having some exciting new conversations with clusters of schools about TMC’s learning service. We all know that we’re going through a time of change in education, and we’re happy to say that we’re able to continue working proactively by innovating in the classroom.

In Derbyshire, Leicester, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland, schools are thinking about how to continue with creative and child-centred approaches to improve learning. They’re focusing on a variety of school improvement areas, including literacy, parental engagement, CPD and curriculum development.

This year, participating schools will get a visit or two from Mobile TBC! This engaging space helps us to reimagine the possibilities for young people’s learning.

Looking ahead, we are also thinking about how we can support specific aspects of teaching and learning. MFL is top of the list at present…

Our approach will continue to focus on pedagogy and direct intervention, ensuring that young people and staff have unforgettable learning experiences that improve outcomes for them.

Watch this space for more info! If you’d like to chat about getting involved please call Sarah Bailey on 07887 594105 or email sarahb@themightycreatives.com.

Meanwhile, if you’d like a little inspiration today, have a look at some of our case studies. Here’s what happened when we thought differently about understanding World War I. http://www.themightycreatives.com/our-programmes/case-studies/caistor-yarborough/

Young people in Derby/shire find space to play music and perform

Young People from across Derby and Derbyshire came together last Saturday to find somewhereto_ play music and perform, as part of the giant live performance art festival Derby Festé. The Silk Mill, one of Derbys' wonderful museums, kindly donated a space IN one of their exhibits, a reproduction of a 1970s living room!

The young people, some performing in bands / groups, and some by themselves played great sets, full of well-known cover versions and original songs too. The crowd, which had gathered at The Silk Mill to take part in the giant fish making activities, and the video games tournaments, as well as to hear the music- were brilliant, and really supportive to the lovely young musicians. They all had a great day, performed really well and received lots of applause.

'It was an awesome place to play, I love the 70s feel, and the sofas, they're really comfy! It was brill, thanks" said Sean, one of the musicians. Lots of the bands said they'd love to come back and play here again, so we'll see what we can do again in the future. Watch this space!

If you need somewhereto_ do the thing that you love then get in touch with Daisy, our somewhereto_ programme Manager – daisy@themightycreatives.com

FILM: Highfields School - the inside story

The new school term started just a few weeks ago. If you're still settling into your new year group or an entirely new school then check out this quirky video created by Year seven pupils at Highfields School in Matlock, Derbyshire,  who worked on a Creative Partnerships project last term which focused on inductions and transitions.