Youth-Led Creativity: 10 organisations awarded funding totalling £1.1m

Launched in February this year, the Youth-Led Creativity programme was co-designed with young consultants from Esmée's Involving Young People Collective. With support from Esmée staff, the young consultants also led the assessment process, reviewing 357 expressions of interest and inviting 17 organisations to submit a full proposal. In September, young consultants and Esmée staff took their joint recommendations for decision. Based on these recommendations and in line with the budget, 10 applications were approved for a grant, ranging from £71k to £120k.

We'll be sharing more reflections and insights from our young consultants soon. For now, we're all very excited to share more about the brilliant organisations and what the funding will support them to do below.

Care to Culture

Care to Culture is a creative arts company working to change the creative and employment landscape for care experienced artists and creatives. Established in 2020, they deliver financial literacy training alongside paid professional roles, and develop productions for stage, film and screen. The organisation is rooted in lived experience, consulting with young care experienced people to shape their development and inform all decisions.

Youth Led Creativity funding will support them to develop and expand their key project, the Pathway Plan, which supports a group of care experienced young people over six months, culminating in a performance at a professional theatre venue. Joy and care is prioritised by embedding safety and care into delivery, as well as ensuring the young people are celebrated.

Cheshire Young Carers

Cheshire Young Carers works to support and ensure that young carers in Cheshire are able to advocate for and influence positive and meaningful change within their community and wider society through creative arts respite activities, workshops and residentials. Their Young Carers Steering Group shape activities and services, feeding into decision-making. They also create opportunities for young carers to experience a joyful childhood, develop resilience, and improve self-esteem and confidence.

Youth Led Creativity funding will support weekly art and creativity workshops designed by, and led by, young carers in community spaces across Cheshire with the aim of building, strengthening and equipping them to advocate for and influence positive and meaningful change within their community.

© Cheshire Young Carers - Three young people smile as they paint their clay model, which they're working on together.

Comics Youth

Comics Youth is a creative community organisation led by young people, for young people. They aim to empower youth across Merseyside to flourish from the margins of society: harnessing their own narratives, finding confidence within an inclusive community, and developing the resilience to succeed on their own path.

Youth Led Creativity funding will support their Marginal Changemaker programme, which will upskill 80 young people over three years to run the Marginal publishing house, and lobby for direct change within the wider publishing industry to make it more accessible. Young people will have access to mentorship, training, wellbeing support and coaching. They’ll also be supported to develop their own publications and campaigns to open a wider dialogue around youth-led creativity and sustainable creative futures.

© Comics Youth - Two young people show off their tote bags which are cream coloured and have an illustration featuring different young people and the word 'MARGINAL' below it.

DreamArts

DreamArts transforms young lives through arts and therapy. Members express themselves on their own terms, explore their challenges and build their strengths so they can realise their potential. They support young people to devise and run their own creative projects as well as running a creative and therapeutic programme for young people facing particular challenges in their lives.

Youth Led Creativity funding will support their Friends From Afar programme, supporting unaccompanied refugee young people to use their voice and influence change to the narratives told about their lives and the world around them through creativity. Young people are encouraged to be playful, curious, and lean into their creative agency to guide joyful interaction and self-discovery.

Ludus Dance

Ludus Dance uses dance as a tool to positively enhance the lives of children, young people and their families. Many of the young people they work with have been excluded from schools or had negative experiences with institutions. Working with a wide range of partners in social, educational and mental health and wellbeing settings, they deliver creative dance services that measurably improve wellbeing. As part of the organisation’s development, young people will collaborate to create and co-lead a democratised programme, building confidence and clear communication.

Youth Led Creativity funding will support Ludus Dance’s plans to broaden and further develop their youth-led structures. It will also support the development of an artistic leadership programme to support young people outside of the traditional education system to mend the bond of trust between young people, institutions and perceived authority figures.

Play for Progress

Play for Progress supports unaccompanied young people seeking asylum and promotes community resilience through trauma-informed creative engagement in the arts and education. They provide holistic one-to-one support and creative activities, which are led by young people. They have a Young Leaders Council, which makes recommendations to the organisation’s leadership team, and are piloting a Young Leaders Programme, offering paid opportunities for their young people to shape their services and their delivery.

Youth Led Creativity funding will support their core work and enable them to formalise and strengthen their Young Leaders programme, with the aim of embedding youth voice at the heart of decision-making and further developing young people’s skills.

© Play for Progress - Young people playing music as part of an orchestra. They are playing a range of instruments including violins, a flute and guitar.

Skaped

Skaped is a community-led ‘artivist’ charity that works with young people in East London, equipping them with the tools needed to create social change by using the creative arts to reflect on their strengths and the collective power of community. The organisation is founded by two young migrant women and young people make up the majority of the staff team. All Skaped’s work is co-designed with young people and their approach to collective work puts young people’s needs first by ensuring that young people are paid and that their joy and care is a priority.

Youth Led Creativity funding will support their core work and plans to increase young people’s involvement in the organisation’s governance. This includes youth steering groups, with young people paid for their time.

© Skaped - A group of young people pose together for a picture in a gallery that has an exhibition of their art. Some are standing and some of them are kneeling.

Theatre Peckham

Theatre Peckham is a multi-award-winning cultural venue that has been championing artistic excellence and social change since 1986. They provide training opportunities for aspiring artists, amplifying young voices and inspiring creativity and ambition. Their Young Ambassadors shape the strategic direction of Theatre Peckham and curate youth-focused workshops and events. They are a collaborative, inclusive theatre, involving participants and local communities in strategic decisions.

Youth Led Creativity funding will support a youth-led initiative providing young people with paid opportunities to be researchers and leaders and in the creative industries. Through engaging across sector wide discussions and seeing new and innovative work they will devise a formula that defines what spoken word theatre is, creating a new distinguishable form of theatre. The project also aims to inject fresh creativity into the theatre sector with learning shared with sector leaders.

© AKTA- A young person stands centre stage and gestures as part of a performance. A line of other young performers are standing behind them in front of a black backdrop.

The Multi-Story Orchestra

The Multi-Story Orchestra work with young people to create extraordinary performances, tell stories and unleash creativity. They aim to bring orchestral music to a broader audience by putting on performances in unexpected places like car parks, and platforming stories from the communities they perform in. Their Young Creatives programme was inspired by a piece, ‘The Endz’, which was conceived and created by young people and showed how making music could develop young people into leaders and enable them to tell their own stories.

Youth Led Creativity funding will support Multi-Story Orchestra to grow its Young Creatives programme, offering paid opportunities for young people to generate ideas and lead music creation. It will also support their Youth Producer to co-create an alumni engagement programme with the aim of creating resources and networks for young people, as well as support the organisation to develop its approach to co-creation and share their learning.

Ventnor Exchange

First founded by a group of local teenagers, Ventnor Exchange is now one of the Isle of Wight's leading arts organisations and cultural venues. They aim to build a sustainable creative economy that provides opportunities, careers and an authentic Island voice that is heard around the world. Brave Island is the creative network and platform they developed based on their own lived experiences on the challenges growing on the Island, designed to nurture new talent, providing mentoring, funding, experiences and training for 14-25 year olds interested in the creative industries and now counts more than 500 young people as members.

Using the organisations experience in delivering the award winning Ventnor Fringe, Youth Led Creativity funding will support the development of a Brave Island Festival, launching in 2026. Designed and led by young people, the festival will be the culmination of workshops, mentoring and volunteer programmes. The project will also lead to the delivery of dedicated work placements, apprenticeships and other trainee experiences. A working group including County and Parish Councils, youth charities, arts organisations, schools, sports clubs, will support the project.