As far as collaboration goes, We Rise knows that 2 + 2 always = 5 and often 6, 10 or even 40 as it did when we collaborated with the Fashion Minority Alliance to deliver 2 intensive creative bootcamps for 40 young people aged 16-30 in late 2023.
When We Rise COO Polly Waterworth and the FMA’s Barbara Kennedy-Brown were connected they instantly realised their shared mission meant they needed to find an opportunity to deliver a meaningful creative work experience project together. For it to deliver value for the under privileged and represented young people they support the project had to:
- delivered significant impact for the participants
- paid them for their time on the project
- connected them to a wide range of creative industry insiders to grow their insights and build their network
We were delighted when we won a joint pitch to deliver 2 week long creative bootcamps for Lambeth Council’s ELEVATE! careers programme for 40 NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training), or at risk of being NEET young people aged 16-30.
Lambeth’s ELEVATE! programme has a mission to open up the Creative and Digital sector to all young people aged 16-30 in the borough and our hands-on project provided work experience, inspiration and insights into creative careers like, design, fashion, styling, social media, and content creation from industry experts. The design of our Creative Bootcamp project ensured that all of the young people taking part would:
- work in teams on a real creative brief that they delivered at the end of the week.
- produced an end of project event to showcase their brilliant creations
- take part in work ready skills sessions delivered by industry experts
- be paid the LLW for the time they spent on the project
With support from the Lambeth ELEVATE! Team, we ran two pre-application taster sessions that were attended by an incredible 68 young people. Using the data collected at registration we then selected 20 of the most suitable NEET candidates aged 23-30 to take part in the first bootcamp week and a further 20 at risk of being NEET young people aged 16-22 to join the second. The participants were put into small teams for each week and working together with the help of the FMA’s Deborah Latouche, the We Rise coaches supported the participants while they:
- delivered their creative brief challenge which was to transform a plain white shirt into a different garment to suit a character developed by each team
- presented their design development for feedback
- produced their garments during a visit to Make Town in Hackney to learn weaving and sewing techniques.
- took part in styling, marketing, business and photography masterclasses from industry experts like Zadrian Smith and Diana Kakkar from Maes London
- and CV, branding, social media and Linked In masterclasses and 1 to 1 advice
- wrote and created short films to showcase their garment’s story and outcome
- created presentation to introduce their garments and films to a room full of the project stakeholders at the end of the project
As with all of our work experience projects, through the process of delivering a real output – the transformed ‘white shirt’ within a fixed timeframe as part of a collaborative team, the activity mirrored the real world of work. The young people gained valuable work ready skills and the wrap around soft skills support compounded the empowerment that the week brought. One participant described his experiences as:
‘So much great knowledge was shared and the experiences of others were shared which is amazing. It’s also so engaging and fulfilling. There were so many learning opportunities and engaging things to learn. As well as this, listening to all the professionals in a social setting really allowed for walls to be broken down!’ – Salvador – Creative Bootcamp Week 1 participant.
There is a significant need to run more work experience projects that deliver this kind of impact as places are in high demand. The Creative Bootcamp was over-subscribed by over 300% with 130 young people signing up for one of the 40 places. Everyone who took part in the project would recommend We Rise and there was a significant improvement in the participants’ assessment of their teamwork skills after taking part.
Our Client at Lambeth Council, Chinnelle was hugely supportive of the project and celebrated its success shining the light on the We Rise staff that helped facilitated it:
‘I feel like the delivery of the bootcamps went really well and hearing about the growth of the young people and their experiences was inspiring. The presentations at the end of the week highlighted how much work they were able to achieve in such a small amount of time and I think that is a testament to not only the young people and their dedication but also to all the staff that supported them throughout their time. Communication with Polly was great from start to end.’ – Chinnelle McLean – Creative Pathways Manager
Economy, Culture and Skills, Climate and Inclusive Growth Directorate, London Borough of Lambeth
…to see how it happened and to hear directly from the participants this short film is a must watch!
