Hello, the Upstart team love working with Bridges to reach young people locally.  We can help in a number of ways and would be happy for you to get in touch to discuss your projects!

• Young Ambassadors
  
• Training opportunities
• Events with and for young people
• Arts Award Projects
• Consultations
• Documenting events or projects
• Features on Voice

YOUNG AMBASSADORS

Do you need to train a group of local young people to help promote Arts Award or your organisation at events?  We can design a session to empower young people to talk about their own arts experiences and share the benefits of taking part in the arts.  We also have a network of young professionals who are keen to share their experiences in workshops, as a keynote or by running an Arts Award stand to promote Arts Award on Voice, the online space for young people taking part in Arts Award.

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

We've developed some tried and tested training sessions for young people over the years.  We can work with a group of your young people on sessions which include:

• Being an Arts Award ambassador
• Peer mentoring for Arts Award
• How to write great arts reviews
• How to interview an arts professional
• How to write a good opinion piece

For organisations within your region we can also run training centred around our core offer of 'Developing youth voice in your organisation'.  A flexible training package which includes modules around digital engagement, safe live engagement, tactics for working with young people at board level and ways to ensure their voice is at the heart of activities or your organisation as a whole.

EVENTS WITH AND FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

We can support you and/or young people to plan and run events.  Be it a celebration, part of a regional conference, or simply a showcase of the talent your region has to offer. Our Projects Manager is qualified at university level in event safety management and is a member of the Institute for Occupational Safety & Health.  With our experience in bringing young people together, handling all logistics, budgets and programming we can make it easy to develop a great opportunity. As well as many Arts Award events including the 2016 10th Birthday Celebrations, we’ve recently been running a UK-wide tour of events for Trinity Music and supported The Mighty Creatives' regional conference and international festival MozFest.

ARTS AWARD PROJECTS

Do you need to support a young person to achieve? Or want to run Discover with a group at a festival or event?

We have experienced advisers who can work remotely with young people identified, especially at Gold, but where the local provision may not be there.  We have also created the formula for running a Discover Club at festivals.  A great way to get people interested!

CONSULTATIONS

Do you need to know the views of young people in your region?  We can co-ordinate sessions with local groups and design online surveys. Our team can run the sessions and feedback to you in a clear format.  We’ve run this kind of consultation for Trinity, Arts Council England and Creative & Cultural Skills as well as local organisations.

DOCUMENTING EVENTS AND PROJECTS

We have some great young journalists in the Voice team who are keen for commissions. They can set up a page on Voice (or your website) before your event, attend to take photos and/or video and manage social media on the day, then pull together a record for you afterwards.  A great way to record a young person's perspective and produce evidence from you activity.

FEATURES ON VOICE

We're always up for an invitation…to cover an event, interview an artist, pick up a case study. Just shout! If it’s linked to our current work then this is totally free - especially if it supports careers advice or profiles a young person’s Arts Award experience.  

Likewise if you’re partnering with a festival or running an arts event then we’d love to find young reporters nearby to come and review.