Central Region News
Great Places teams up with ReelMcr on knife crime film project in Salford
Great Places recently teamed up with ReelMcr, community-based drama and participant-led social history documentary film makers, to work with young people in Salford to make a documentary about the impact knife crime in the area.
The 12-week project funded by Great Places and £10,000 from Engie as part of its social value commitments, was an opportunity for the young people involved to develop their film making skills.
The project was spearheaded by Lisa Newns, area services manager for Great Places’ Seedly and Langworthy neighbourhood after becoming inspired by the success of a previous project the company worked on.
“We produced a loan shark play with young people which they performed at Salford University,” Lisa said. “It really got the message across which I believe was made more powerful that it was done by young people, so I had the idea to do something similar with knife crime.
“It’s escalating everywhere, but particularly across Salford. If it makes just one young person think twice about carrying a knife, then it’s done its job.
“We plan to use the documentary which is in schools, pupil referral units, and youth clubs in the local area to raise awareness on knife crime. We hope the documentary will be hard hitting but age appropriate reminder that can be used by schools and online for years to come.”
The young filmmakers aged 11-16 also had input on the direction and final content of the film expected to be completed by late Spring 2022.
Beauty training for Oldham customers with DASH
Our Community Investment Team recently teamed up with Oldham’s DASH Beauty and Training Academy to offer training and courses for customers looking to get into the beauty industry.
Owner Katy West opened her business a week before Christmas 2020 but then had to close until April 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions. The 32-year-old only got into the industry four years earlier after facing a very difficult time personally.
However, after completing a beauty therapy course, she turned her life around for the better with DASH offering treatments and courses for everyone, whatever their age or experience.
Determined to give something back to her local community, Katy has recently teamed up with Great Places to look at how she could help customers, some of whom have come from difficult backgrounds, to forge future careers in the beauty industry.
Katy said: “Doing the beauty therapy course got me out of what was a tough situation at the time. I’m passionate about helping people and it is great to be working with Great Places to do just that and give people a chance to get some experience to get into the industry.”
As well as training customers about beauty therapy to help them find employment, Katy and her team also encourage them to make positive changes to their lives and remind them it does not matter what backgrounds they have come from in order to enjoy success.
Our partnerships manager, Rebecca Cremin, added: “Great Places is delighted to be working in partnership with DASH to provide opportunities for our customers to train at the Academy which will give them the skills to establish a career in the beauty industry.
“We will also provide additional support from our employability team to ensure they receive the support they need to succeed.”
If you’re interested in finding out more about the project or the range of employability opportunities in your area contact community investment@greatplaces.org.uk
Our “Boss It” programme is encouraging the next generation of business entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.
The programme, aimed at anyone over 16 years of age, unemployed, offered a grant of up to £1000 for successful applicants to kick start their business and further support was provided through our More Positive Together mentors.
In addition to this further specialist business set up support was provided to all successful candidates, helping them to develop their business ideas.
Throughout February and March we ran another round of the hugely successful programme with customers being able to take advantage of specialist business start-up workshops, some business funding and tailored follow on support.
One customer, Becky from Bolton, who has completed the programme said: “I wanted to start-up my business to help and support other people struggling with their weight like I was.
“I tried every diet going but this one worked for me and that is ‘The 1:1 diet by Cambridge Weight Plan’ I lost six stone in eight months. Great Places has been amazing with the ‘self-employment’ training to help me establish myself and I now have more confidence to answer all my enquiries knowing I have the stock to get them going on the diet and I have the knowledge to make my business successful and help others to reach their goals.”
We are looking at running more courses in the future so keep an eye out on our eNewsletter and social media channels for information.