HELPING 13-YEAR-OLDS IN CUMBRIA UNLOCK THEIR CREATIVITY WITH IDEAS TO CELEBRATE THE PLATINUM JUBILEE
The 13-year-olds of Solway Community College whom I spent a day working with have only been alive for a small part of Her Majesty’s 70-year reign.
Yet they responded to an Ideas Foundation brief to celebrate Her Majesty’s Jubilee with an eagerness that gives me hope for the future of our monarchy!
This school was just one of a dozen that the Ideas Foundation team have visited in the last two months on our creativity mission.
Thank you Clear Channel
The most outstanding 12 poster ideas will be displayed on 6-sheet digital posters – thanks to the generosity of Clear Channel – in a national campaign in the week before the Jubilee celebration.
Look at the creative output of 13-year-olds from Solway Community College in just one day – from young people who have never created anything like this before. And there are another two dozen posters by other young people that will be in the final selection.
Thank you Canon for £20,000 of cameras
It was a brilliant idea from Canon Ambassador, Clive Booth, to give the 13-year-olds the pick of £20,000 worth of Canon cameras so they could bring their ideas to life. And, how lucky to have a 24-year-old Brand Designer, Hannah Wood – who is already started her own business – to teach the students to brainstorm in a way that led to these impressive ideas.
Teachers were jubilant as their pupils showed a level of creativity that hadn’t been revealed in their English or Maths academic work. And one of the most gifted young people was autistic and came up with one of the best ideas – which was very rewarding both for him and the Ideas Foundation team.
Finding creative talent they didn’t know they had
At the end, I asked them to put up their hands if they had learned something they hadn’t felt before about their ability to create ideas. And more than half of the group of 35 students raised their hands.
That was the mission that we established when I helped create the Ideas Foundation just over 20 years ago. To help disadvantaged young people – some from ethnic minorities, but many from disadvantaged white communities – whose creativity may not have been identified in the environment in which they live.
100,000 young people later, we can boast about art directors and copywriters and creative entrepreneurs who started their journey in a workshop like the one we ran in Solway Community School.
And there are over 30 leading brands who have helped us fund this – we still struggle to find the funds to do justice to our mission.
Thank you Adam&Eve for all your support
Many of the leading agencies like Adam&Eve, Engine, BBH and Ogilvy have supported us with generous mentoring. Adam&Eve even sent a sparkling 24 year old Planner, Lucy Wilson, who had been discovered by their innovative BITE Recruitment Programme – reaching into communities who are not reached by conventional recruitment. It was wonderful to see Lucy working with students who were only a few years away from her, from four schools in Taunton in another session I went to as well.
Click on the image to see a film of the day.
Having Fun In Cumbria.
Thank you Jubilee Pageant for funding this
None of this could have happened if Nicholas Coleridge hadn’t recommended to his team at the Jubilee Pageant – led by Rosanna Machado, who has been a long time supporter of the Ideas Foundation to fund all this with a £75,000 grant.
Hopefully, they will belive it is money well spent. Not just by looking at the output, but in reading the email sent by Claire O’Neill, Sustainability Director, after she visited another of our workshops in Cumbria.
Hello Heather and everyone,
I just want to thank you and share how amazing it was to be a part of what Ideas Foundation delivered with Whitehaven Academy yesterday.
The atmosphere, inspiration and creativity surpassed all expectations and it is extremely heartwarming to see the positive impact and opportunity that are being created by these activities.
Hat's off to everyone involved. We're so happy and humbled to be able to support the excellent, genuine and passionate work you are doing.
All the best,
Claire
Hopefully, you will see some of these posters in the run-up to the Jubilee in June.
Even if you don’t, several hundred young lives have had their eyes opened to their creative potential from this initiative.
And, who knows what their talents will create over the next 70 years.
Robin Wight CVO CBE
From Solway Community School
16 May 2022