Knowle West Media Centre
April 7, 2008 Posted by Makala Cheung in : Digital Challenge, e-democracy, Bristol, Community Media, Regeneration, South Bristol, Events, Mentoring, News, Learning, Skills, Environment, Connecting Bristol, Guest Bloggers , add a commentI’m Press and Communications worker for the Knowle West Media Centre. We offer cutting edge media services and facilities from our new environmental building, and exciting hands on learning alongside professional practitioners. We are strongly embedded in the local community and run various groups for residents, especially young people.
My role involves doing press and marketing for KWMC, editor for the community newsletter, running parts of the community website http://www.knowlewest.co.uk (including the events pages), community communication both face-to-face with residents, clubs and organisations, facilitating Mouth of the South (more below) and taking part in community events, networks, and city-wide work for example I took part in Connecting Bristol’s bid to the Digital Challenge.
The new Knowle West Media Centre at Leinster Avenue will be holding its official 2 day opening event this week. Young people who work with Knowle West Media Centre will launch the two day programme of celebration on Thursday 10th April when they officially open the £2.6m green new HQ that they helped to plan, design and build. The opening ceremony will mark the successful end of a 5 year project to provide Knowle West with a beacon of creative and climate-friendly media enterprise, where young people can develop the technological skills demanded by the digital age.
Thursday 10th April 12pm-5pm
Official opening of KWMC by the Archimedia Core Group and KWMCC Director Carolyn Hassan from 12pm, this will be followed by building tours and displays of each departments work, as well as film screenings and projects and performances by young people and community groups.Then at 3.30pm Matthew Taylor, Chief Exec of the Royal Society of Arts, will speak about Young People, Media and Community.
Friday 11th April 2pm-5pm
Friday will see an opening of KWMC by local residents and Key Funders of the building, including Bristol City Council, South West Regional Development Agency and Arts Council SW. Again there will be film screenings, exhibitions, story telling sessions and tree planting.
To join us on this landmark occasion please RSVP to Katie Taylor at Katie@kwmc.org.uk by 7th April.
Please note children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult.
You will be able to find out more about us and meet some of the young people we work with. Examples of our groups include:
AMAZING ARCHIVE GROUP - A Young Roots Heritage Lottery Funded project for 12 – 25 year olds researching their heritage in and around Knowle West.
In June 2008 an exhibition will present the work of the group and invite the community to become involved in creating a ‘living’ archive for Knowle West.
KNOWLE WEST CARBON MAKEOVER- Knowle West Media Centre is working with 100 homes to be part of this exciting year-long environmental project. The project team will support the families in making changes to their homes and lifestyles looking at the different themes of climate change, for example, shopping locally.
DIGITAL FISH FILM CLUB - A young person-led club for 13-19 year olds, open to young people from Knowle West and South Bristol. They make short films and animations; as well as holding holiday film clubs, and workshops on acting, music recording, scriptwriting etc. The group’s work has won national awards and often run trips to screenings of our work all over the country.
SILVERSCREEN FILM CLUB - Over 50’s Film Club with regular screenings, host guest speakers, an extensive DVD library and cinema visits both in Bristol and further a field. Transport to events if required, and a selection of refreshments. It is open to all over 50’s from Knowle West and South Bristol.
MOUTH OF THE SOUTH - Our young journalists group is for 11-16 year olds and sessions include;
Newsletter - design, writing, interviewing and photography
Website: www.kwmc.org.uk/mos which includes radio and film projects
NLARGE PHOTOGRAPHY - Our photography group for 13-19 year olds is open to young people from Knowle West and South Bristol. The group follow an in depth and exciting programme learning all aspects of photography from a wide range of professional photographers. The Nlarge team take professional commissions and work towards becoming a sustainable enterprise led by young people.
To find out more about us go to http://www.kwmc.org.uk
Meanwhile, I have a workshop to prepare for - The newsletter drop-in club. The newsletter is nearing deadline, and residents will be meeting tonight, and I will be helping them in editing and designing all the new stories I received from residents and local workers over the last week.
So until tomorrow, everyone have a nice evening (whether the sun is shining or it’s snowing - who knows after yesterday’s weather), and if you happen to be reading this weeks Venue, there’s a double spread about us on page 24.
Makala x
Slivers of Time
January 29, 2008 Posted by Stephen Hilton in : Bristol, Innovation, Skills, jobs, Flexible Working , add a commentWe at Connecting Bristol have been banging on about the potential of Slivers of Time, Homeshoring and other forms of ultra-flexible working for quite some time now.
The idea is to create a new type of employment market place, which gives far more control to employees about where and when they work and at the same time helps employers run their businesses effectively.
The Guardian has picked-up on Slivers of Time with a feature aimed at graduates appearing in this week end’s Work section.
You can read it here
New report by Community Media South West & Blueboard
May 25, 2007 Posted by Shawn in : Education, Digital Challenge, Community Media, Advocacy, Skills , add a commentMAKING IT WORK:
An Enquiry into how companies in the Community Media Sector recruit and
retain skilled freelancers
Research by Ella Bissett Johnson
Edited by Shawn Sobers and Steve Gear
This report is a timely and original development in the analysis of social interest creative practice. It takes the debate much further than merely exploring the merits of such projects, and directly provides an analysis of the economic and skills base for this area of work – the area of community media activity within the creative industries.
According to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the creative industries are now one of the fastest growing sectors in the British economy, and socially aware creative practice is now gaining a stronger profile and being taken seriously by a wide range of cultural agencies. We feel this report provides an important step in recognising not only the economic realities of these community minded organisations via case studies of the companies themselves and the freelancers they employ, but also charts the average skills contained in this community media/arts field of work, and highlights its future sustainability.
This report has been designed to be not only illuminating, but also be useful. It will be of interest to stakeholders of community based media & arts activity, including project facilitators, managers, funders and policy makers, and also for areas such as careers advice and academic fields such as media studies and social policy. Hopefully this report will provide a platform from which to make informed decisions with confidence, from which the sub-sector of community based media education activity can strategically grow and flourish.
To order from Amazon click here.
To download full report as a pdf file click here.
Research funded by ABI Associates, University of the West of England and South West Screen
Supported by Calling the Shots and Firstborn Creatives
Published by - CMSW / Blueboard - Jan 2007
Knowle West Media Centre meets Simon Willis
December 14, 2006 Posted by Roz in : Education, Digital Challenge, e-democracy, Community Media, Learning, Skills, Connecting Bristol , 1 comment so far6 November 2006
I met with Simon Willis who told me that he has worked for seven years as a detached youth worker in Knowle West and adjacent areas. He told me he had worked in Merrywood and Hengrove with young people on the brink of exclusion. Simon highlighted that detached work is very different from other ways of working with young people. He said that he thought this was to do with being on young people’s own ‘patch’ and the consequent impact on the power relationship, which shifts in such contexts.
Simon explained that he establishes a relationship with young people through dialogue, to get a sense of what might interest them and sometimes he might make suggestions. Simon then talked about the ways in which he has used digital media as a means by which to engage some young people in a process. He talked about how engagement in a meaningful process gave young people a reason to be around youth workers.
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