Our biggest project ever is now live.

On Monday 22 March we invited members of local community groups and organisations in Gillingham to come together in the Studio at the Slade Centre to find out about the project and how they can get involved.

We are really excited about this five-year initiative which sees us partner with Gillingham Youth Club to deliver a range of activities, events and celebrations every year for 300-400 young people in Gillingham. A key element of the project involves us building on our experience of working with film-makers in Sherborne and Gillingham to develop a group of “Media Makers” (14-19 year olds) who will ensure that young people’s voices and ideas are heard and used to help shape the contents of the programme.

As someone commented after the event, “there was a real energy in the room” and people left excited and enthusiastic with plans for further meetings and discussions about how we can work together.

But for now, it’s time for us to focus on spreading the word amongst the young people in Gillingham and recruiting members to the Media Makers group and Young Leaders.

For a full write up about the evening, you can check out Gillingham News you can check out an article by Michael Streeter here and a pre-launch announcement here. The project has it’s own dedicated website – www.gycollective.com where you can find out more about the project and what will be happening. There are also Facebook and Instagram pages – they’re still in their infancy but will grow over the months and year as the project comes to life. And if you use social media do please give us a follow.

We are extremely grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund and the trust they have in us to manage such a large amount of project in Gillingham, an area which has been underfunded for many years. It goes without saying of course that we hope that as time goes on we will be able to replicate elements of the project in Sherborne when funding allows.