Press Release: 10 January 2012

Students of the world’s first Social Enterprise Qualification (SEQ) will be addressing social and environmental issues in our local communities from January 2012. CapeUK will be training schools, youth workers and also adult training providers across Yorkshire and Humber, to deliver the Social Enterprise Qualification (SEQ). The SEQ students will set up businesses that directly address, or generate income to relieve, social and environmental issues that affect our communities.

Social Enterprises are businesses set up to tackle environmental or social issues. From charity auctions to fair trade companies, there are thousands of Social Enterprises in the UK working to make people’s lives better, and tackle environmental problems.

Through taking part in Social Enterprise Qualification (SEQ), young people gain real experience of making money, organising events and building management skills, all the time considering how what they do can make a real difference to the communities around them. Similarly, adults taking part in SEQ can set up businesses stimulating the local economy, whilst making postive social or environmental change.

Ginny Scholey from CapeUK, SEQ Training Provider says, “We are delighted to be the first organisation in our region offering training to schools, youth groups and adult training providers to deliver SEQ in their setting. SEQ is a way for people to be recognised for the socially entrepreneurial activity many of them are already engaged in, and also to develop a new generation of social entreprenuers.”

“CapeUK are commitment to social enterprise principals, operating in a way that creates positive social change, we do this through leading and partnering with programmes that priorities the right for every child and young person to experience and develop their own channels for creativity (be it through the arts and/or social engagement) which will lead them into being proactive young adults in the future.”

SEQ can be taken at Bronze and Silver levels, which are a level 2 award and certificate respectivley on the the Qualifications Credit Framework. SEQ will challenge students to demonstrate they understand what social enterprise and ethical trading are about, enabling them to develop real new products or services within their school, community or wider marketplace.
 

SEQ offers a recognisable benchmark backed and informed by successful Social Enterprises so that students can directly learn the skills that potential employers are looking for.
 

Further training opportunities will be available across the region.  For more information please call CapeUK on 0845 450 3700, or visit: http://www.capeuk.org/current-work/programmes/social-enterprise-qualification

COMING SOON: In March 2012, CapeUK will be hosting a Yorkshire Social Enterprise Qualification (SEQ) Conference - more details will be on our website shortly, in the meantime if you would like to register your interest please e-mail dan@capeuk.org

Mentor Training Dates 2012 - 23rd February, 10am - 5pm, Meanwood Farm, Leeds or 26th March, 10am – 5pm, Priory Street Centre, York - The course costs £150+VAT, please check the Mentor spec before you apply (all info on this webpage: http://seq.realideas.org/buy-seq/book-seq-mentor-training)

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Notes to Editors
For more information please contact Jo Jessop, Communications Manager, CapeUK on 0845 450 3700 or jo.jessop@capeuk.org

Social Enterprise Qualification: Real Ideas Organisation has developed a new Social Enterprise Qualification (SEQ) to accredit and encourage people working for positive social change. To achieve the qualification, learners will demonstrate they understand what social enterprise and ethical trading are about, and will develop real new products or services within their school, community or wider marketplace. The qualification will be offered at bronze, silver and silver top-up, linked to the Qualifications Credit Framework in the UK. This structure may need adapting for other countries. www.realideas.org/socialenterprisequalification.
 

The Real Ideas Organisation works with communities and young people to make real change happen through social enterprise. It offers services and products to schools, local authorities, government departments and national partners which create real and lasting improvement. www.realideas.org
 

CapeUK is the local SEQ Training Provider delivering training to schools, youth group and adult training providers so that they can in turn deliver the Social Enterprise Qualification with students. CapeUK also works to improve the lives of children and young people, putting creativity at the centre of learning and development. Working with schools, youth and community organisations, universities, the cultural and creative sector and other agencies, CapeUK offers a range of programmes exploring and promoting creativity, learning and development.
 

CapeUK will be working with 16 families (potentially up to 60 participants) as part of the Sheffield creative family learning scheme which is happening 25-26 Aug and 1-2 Sept in Shirecliffe, Sheffield.
 

Week One: 25th & 26th August 2011
Introducing basic film making skills – on these first two days, there will be 4 artists running a carousel workshop system where families will work to build narrative, learn animation skills and construct sound stories and get to grips with the video cameras we are using.  The focus will be on asking questions: Who are we as a family?  What makes up our story?  Where do we live? Each family borrows a camera and takes it home for the week.
 

Week Two: 1st & 2nd September 2011
1st September will be a downloading of material and editing day and 2nd September will be a celebration and screening of the films we have made, with Oscars, popcorn and a red carpet.

Sophie Hunter, Project Coordinator says; “The aim of the project is to provide families with an opportunity to learn to make films, and have lots of fun being creative together.  This project aims to connect families and children from 3 of the primary schools which feed into Parkwood Academy – Longley, Watercliffe and Pye Bank.  Often projects are focussed on just adults or just children – but in this one, we’re hoping that all family members will enjoy the experience of working on something together, learning from each other, and sharing their finished films with the other families involved.”

The Shirecliffe project is one of four CapeUK Creative Families Schemes; they aim to build on CapeUK’s experience of family learning and develop services that have previously been supported through the regional management of the Creative Partnerships programme. 

Rosie Marcus, CapeUK Director; “CapeUK’s Creative Families Schemes build on our experiences, associates and expertise of family learning – to continue championing creativity in the lives and learning of children and young people and those who support them.  The mix of activities encourage interaction within families and interaction between families –working together, parents supporting children and children supporting parents.”

If you are interested in being part of the project please call Sophie on 07803 611631
 

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Distributed 19/08/2011   

Photo Call - For more information please contact Jo Jessop, Communications Manager on 0845 450 3700 or jo.jessop@capeuk.org
 

Press Release / Photo Call:  CapeUK have been running a creative family scheme in Birkby, the scheme started on Thursday 4 August and has been running weekly since, seeing over 90 families come along to take part, getting creative, trying something new, making fabulous art, meeting new people and having fun together.  These events have been held at Birkby Community Centre and Huddersfield Art Gallery, the fifth and final week, on Thursday 25 August, is to be held at Greenhead Park.

The theme of the Birkby creative family scheme has been ‘Inside Out Outside In’ working with 4 local artists selected by CapeUK – Samantha Bryan, Andy Fullalove, Chris Squire and Karen Stansfield.  Each week the families explored nature. In the session at Huddersfield Art Gallery families accessed art exploring the current exhibition from Deborah Gardner who is responding to Huddersfield and the local landscape in her work.

For the last session the families are going out into nature, exploring and responding to Greenhead Park.  The park has been recently regenerated, restoring it to its former glory, improving the glasshouse, paddling pool, lake and children’s play areas; ensuring that the park once again becomes a focal point for the local community. The families will be working in the new bandstand / lake area to produce a 'peace garden' in the park; which is directly in response to the social unrest, that has blighted a number of major towns (including Huddersfield) and cities across England.

Stephanie Bartholet, Project Coordinator; “The families will be working together to produce a ‘peace garden’ at Greenhead Park.  Swans will be made to float out across the lake area, we will hang painted images from a huge tree and make large white flowers leading down from the bandstand to the water’s edge – these will all have messages of peace and hope on them.  We hope that these pieces of work can also be displayed in the Edwardian Glasshouse which has just been re-opened.”

The Birkby project has been one of four CapeUK Creative Families Schemes; they aim to build on CapeUK’s experience of family learning and develop services that have previously been supported through the regional management of the Creative Partnerships programme. 

Rosie Marcus, CapeUK Director; “CapeUK’s Creative Families Schemes build on our experiences, associates and expertise of family learning – to continue championing creativity in the lives and learning of children and young people and those who support them.  The mix of activities encourage interaction within families and interaction between families –working together, parents supporting children and children supporting parents.”

Press release published: 19/08/2011

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Editor’s Note: Photo opportunity Thursday 25 August, Greenhead Park. Please contact Jo Jessop, Communications Manager on 0845 450 3700 for more information

NB: Page under construction

CapeUK are proud to be working collaboratively with The Brigshaw Cooperative Trust, a group of seven primary schools, a high school and a Children’s centre, serving the communities of Kippax, Allerton Bywater, Swillington, Great Preston and Ledston in Outer East Leeds. Other partners include the Co-operative Group, Leeds City Council, Leeds City College and Carnegie Leaders in Learning Partnership. The Trust, which was formed in April 2010, builds on the successful collaboration of The Brigshaw Federation. The members of the shared ‘Trust’ have come together to strengthen and sustain partnership working and to help achieve better outcomes for children, young people and families both in the schools and across the wider community.

A group of young Asian men have spent the last three months working on a short film which was launched in Dewsbury, whilst also achieving Bronze Arts Award.  The primary aim of the film project, and other schemes, is to support vulnerable individuals who may be targeted or recruited to violent extremism.  Organisers say it will also help to support mainstream voices in the community and challenge violent extremist ideology.  The film, called 'What's Your Identity?', explores issues important to the five-strong group including identity, belonging and the role and influence of the media on their lives.  ‘Pathways into Adulthood’ is one of six projects undertaken with funding from Prevent (Preventing violent extremism).

Kirklees Young Offending Team (YOT) is made up of representatives from agencies including the Police, Probation Service, Children and Young People Service and Health.  Kirklees YOT identifies the needs of each young offender by assessing them and addressing the specific problems that make the young person offend. 

The young film-makers were assisted by Yorkshire-based Lippy Productions as part of a partnership project between the Kirklees Youth Offending Team and the Kirklees Young People's Service.  During this process the group achieved the Bronze Arts Award, an accreditation which is managed regionally by CapeUK.

We took the group to a play at West Yorkshire Playhouse called “the Black Album” – For many of the young people it was the first time they had been to a live theatre performance. The play was directly related to our film project, as it explored the experience of a young British male who enters university where he is vulnerable to being recruited to an extremist cause.  The young people were able to identify empathise with the main character as he was someone who was susceptible to peer pressure and like them was caught between different cultures. The young people were impressed  by the use of a small space and the use of props to change the scenes.

The young people learnt how to use the film camera and editing equipment and shared these skills with staff supervising the project. This experience of sharing their film making skills increased their confidence and allowed them to “show off” to staff which they enjoyed.

Through their involvement, the young participants gained film-making skills and boosted their self-esteem, teamworking skills and communication.  They became more self-aware, critical thinkers and gained knowledge of oppression and racism and ways to address these issues.

The film project was based around the experience of British born Pakistani heritage young men from Dewsbury in North Kirklees. Their experiences and views on how they see themselves and growing up as an ethnic minority within Britain can be transferred to other young man to increase awareness, empathy and allow space to explore difficult and challenging areas of work with young people today.

The feedback from the Arts Award moderator was: “an interesting and varied set of folders which showed the young people had clearly enjoyed working on their Bronze journeys. All the folders were individual yet had a common bond of thought which enabled them in the end to achieve their Arts award goal. Some superb film work and personal reflections in their Hero and Apprenticeships. Well done!"

Cllr Peter O'Neill, Kirklees Council's Cabinet Member for Safer Stronger Communities, said: "This project has benefited everyone who took part and has given them useful skills for the future.  The project has also demonstrated how the arts, as therapy, can broaden a young person's perspective, change their outlook on life and help them become better citizens."

Link to watch film ‘What is your identity’:

For more Arts Award case studies please visit www.artsaward.org.uk

Coming Soon

…a web resource designed for school staff, local authority officers and all those with an interest in how children, young people and those who work with them develop a sense of self, others, their own communities and communities different from their own.

Young Roots, Your Roots: Creativity, Schools and Community Cohesion

A guide for those working with young people in the 5-13 age-group in schools and communities, and anyone working to promote community cohesion.

This guide sets out to share with a wider audience some of the lessons learned from ‘Young Roots, Your Roots’, a series of ‘community cohesion’ projects in Yorkshire schools coordinated by CapeUK in the summer of 2004.

Through the ‘Creativity Matters’ series we are hoping to stimulate a conversation about how we can transform the experiences which children and young people have in their schools and communities to make this right a reality.

01. Are we really serious about creativity?

02. What contribution can creativity and creative learning make to social inclusion?

03. Making space for teaching creative science?