Social Enterprise driven by young people.

Thought I had to post tonight as I've just come from a really productive Portland Rocks Session. We are launching our social enterprise art strand at the moment and James Kimber ( art leader), Laura (trainee) and myself sat around with young people discussing their ideas:

Tonight they were trying out ideas  in tapestry using off cuts of material and we discussed our first event. They will be producing pieces of art work out of recycled items and putting on a sale combined with live music and refreshments provided by the tuck shops crew who are also artistic and musical

I went through all the paper work for their tuck shop and how to evidence it for gold SEQ. They have really taken ownership, are starting to understand what sells, how to manage stock and beginning to get a grip on the ethical consideration as of what they are doing. They have made a small profit already. We discussed the SWOT analysis and they discussed the limited audience to whom they sell, just people attending the weekly workshops though some did help with refreshments at our concert with the mini Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on Saturday.

We have set a provisional date of mid July for a combined art and music event where we will also provide refreshments. This gives us us time to generate art to sell, decide on which refreshments to provide , decide the venue, rehearse the live music. We will also be offering any local artists the chance to take tables for a small fee at our event to promote their work and raise money to support our CIC.

We currently have artist Podi Lawrence coming to our workshops to sketch the musicians as they work a great experience for our young people.

Week beginning 17th February

Just realised there has been a massive gap in my postings. We've been very busy over the last few weeks delivering a project with the mini BSO (Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra) and Dorset Music Services. On Monday 10th February the mini BSO performed in three different schools on Portland and each session was followed by a 'have a go' session on woodwind instruments led by music service tutors. Over 600 students saw the performance and around 90 students had the chance to try playing an instrument.

On Saturday 22nd February the mini BSO are giving a another concert for the community in a local community centre, a late morning event. Although not SEQ focussed our young people have helped with promoting the event via social media, re tweeting, distributing posters etc. They will be helping with refreshments and running a raffle.

This is the third fund raiser since November so now we will discuss with the young people what they would like to spend some of the money on, we always try and reward their efforts by purchasing some much needed equipment. Much of what we have is begged, borrowed or donated.

The tuck shop is now a permanent fixture at our weekly workshops and we officially launch our social enterprise art strand on 24th February.