MAP Charity (Music & Arts Production) is an alternative education provider working with young people who are unable to access the mainstream school system.
What was the business problem/opportunity you were trying to solve?
MAP Charity has always had young people at its heart: our core mission is to support young people who are at risk of exclusion from mainstream education or becoming unemployed. We teach them valuable skills and give them professional training and support.
For many of young people we work with, mainstream education isn't suitable for them, so they come to MAP as an alternative education provider, and here our primary focus is music and art qualifications and skills. Over the past 18 months, we trialled post-16 learning and will embed it into our permanent offer over the next year.
How are young people involved in your work?
We run courses for young people at our home, Hope Foundry, in Mabgate, Leeds. We also provide space in our building for small creative start-ups such as graphic design studios, screen printers, film and music makers. The small businesses we work with volunteer their time and support the young people on our programme to grow professionally and gain real life experience of the industry. This creates a small eco-system where the young people have valuable role models to learn from too.
Additionally, we run an electronic music night called Cosmic Slop as a fundraiser for the work we do with young people. World famous DJs come to Hope Foundry to play on our one-of-a-kind sound system, and also come to volunteer with the young people we work with.
We're constantly shaping our organisation and how we work. Last year we received over a million pounds of investment to buy Hope Foundry, the building we are based in and a further £450,000 investment from Leeds City Council in order to refurbish the space. We hope that this redevelopment project will enable us to work with more young people, provide post-16 learning and offer adult classes in future too. As well as making much-needed improvements to our offices, live music and exhibition space.
What has it been liking working with young people? What advice would you have for other organisations looking to do the same?
Every young person that comes through our doors has a unique lived experience and it's through creativity and music making that they are able to find their voice or develop the confidence to progress onto further education, training or employment.
Working with young people is consistently inspiring and the amount of talent we see is staggering. For other organisations who'd like to do something similar, don't make any assumptions. Shape your programme around young people's needs and do it by listening to them and responding to their ideas.