Brunswick Community Festival Group is delighted to announce that it has received a community grant of £15,000 from the European Social Fund to deliver a series of creative learning activities and vocational skills development training as part of it’s ongoing community outreach and education programme.
BCFG will work in partnership with the First Impressions Project at Brighton Housing Trusts’ First Base, which supports people who are homeless in Brighton & Hove to move away from street homelessness and become ready for work. The project builds on the work BCFG developed with St.Patrick’s Homeless Shelter 12 years ago, and will reinforce its commitment to involving the more disadvantaged sectors of the local community in Festival activities.
Over the next 2 months, BCFG will be running FREE weekly Wednesday sessions at First Base, offering a wide range of training activities, opportunities for volunteering, employment guidance & advice sessions, community social events and creative taster workshops including:
*First Aid Training * 10 Steps to managing an event * Introduction to volunteering * Arts & Crafts * Theatre workshops * Music * Social Media & IT skills * Photography * Creative Writing * Catering *
The creative learning programme will culminate in a mini-festival or open day at First Base. The BCFG team will support and guide participants through each stage of putting on their own celebratory event (scheduled to take place in March 2015 – date TBC) giving them the opportunity to open their doors outwards and showcase their work and talents to the wider community.
Festival Coordinator, Veronica Stephens says:
“Brunswick Town is a very diverse place – behind the gentrified Regency facades there are also many people who live in extreme poverty and isolation, or find themselves without a secure home. The Festival is committed to ensuring equal access to it’s activities by all members of the community and we are really excited about the opportunity of working with First Base and supporting local people through creative, social, fun and celebratory participatory activities’
Contact:
If you are homeless or unemployed and would like to take part in the activities or help put on a festival at First Base please contact:
Veronica Stephens
Project Coordinator
Tel: 01273 204 404
Email: brunswickfestival@hotmail.com
European Social Fund
The South East programme is administrated by ESF community grants are grants of up to £15,000 which enable small voluntary and community organisations to reach out to some of the most disadvantaged and excluded people.
Brighton Housing Trust – First Base
The First Base First Impressions Project works with homeless and insecurely housed men and women in Brighton and Hove to address the barriers preventing them from working and moving forward with their lives. The project works with people who have successfully engaged in informal non-vocational activities such as arts groups, life skills courses and group activities at First Base Day Centre and supports them to move on to formal activities such as CV preparation and vocational training.
