Beneficiaries
The Young Community
On a broader level, the project provides disparate local communities with an opportunity to learn, share and discover in a safe group environment.
In young people, this process has proven to:
- Increase self-esteem
- Reduce dependence on drugs and alcohol
- Break down barriers of territoriality and gang allegiance
- Establish a friendship network through common goals, shared experience and aspirations
Since its launch in London in 2004, approximately 500 young artists across the UK have collaborated to produce several released albums, an award-winning feature film, documentaries, music videos and dozens of live shows and music industry showcases.
An average 18% of Urban Collective™ artists find that the project provides them with the knowledge and confidence to reapply to College and University while another 6% have moved into youth and community work by taking their experience on the project and creating workshops in MC techniques, song writing and basic recording practice.
Stakeholders
The Urban Collective™ project provides a range of benefits to a variety of stakeholders that can be broken down into the following categories.
Project Participants
Young people living in deprived areas are the primary beneficiaries who benefitting from increased creative industry skills, a legacy studio resource in which to develop further, the establishment of a local network of like minded contemporaries, and a marked increase in self confidence.
Government / Local Authority
Government and local authority education and regeneration departments have supported the Urban Collective™ project since its launch in 2004. Their interest is primarily to support organizations providing community, youth and after- or out-of-school projects to a target demographic known as NEET in the UK: Not in Education, Employment or Training. Urban Collective™ can provide detailed project attendance registers as well as individual participant demographics and after project participant tracking at 13, 26 and 52 weeks.
Trust / Foundation / Corporate Philanthropy
Urban Collective™ provides trusts and foundations with stand-alone projects in a specific geographic area to match their strategic investment interests. In 2008 British Urban Collective™ ran in five UK cities targeted for capital and project investment by Execution Charitable Trust, building the legacy studio inside the community centers that previous investments had supported.
Corporate Sponsor
The Urban Collective™ project is also all about creative output and exposure to as wide an audience as possible, using all available media. The end results of the project are original albums, music videos, live performances a website and all associated supporting media. Corporate sponsors can work with all original media in an aligned branded capacity while the project itself virally generates a growing fan base of targeted youth / urban demographic.
Project Partner
The project also seeks to enhance its legacy studio build and after-project participant support through partnerships with aligned stakeholders. Studio equipment providers can offer wholesale priced and / or donated equipment while key after-project partners include local and regional job brokerage services, professional mentoring networks and companies partnered to take on Urban Collective™ participants in a work experience and apprenticeship capacity.