Young people in Tees Valley have learnt about developing apps thanks to £25,000 which was awarded to The Prince’s Trust from Culture Bridge North East (CBNE), to secure two Get Started programmes in Tees Valley.
13 young people took part in Get Started with Apps, a week of activities exploring the arts and developing apps with Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and Teesside University.
CBNE will invest £250,000 in cultural education over the next year through its Partnership Investment Fund – a new approach to cultural funding, with the single purpose of helping organisations to lever new income to support high quality education by, for and with children and young people.
The Get Started programme is for young people aged between 16-25 who are not in education, employment or training. It is an engaging personal and social development programme delivered in partnership with specialist organisations using inspiring themes.
Linda Smith, Get Started Programme Executive, The Prince’s Trust explains: “Get Started teaches young people new specialist skills in themes across sport, music and arts, STEM and community. Every programme involves a real and meaningful group challenge, something that young people are unlikely to achieve without support to stretch and develop their personal and social skills.”
The young people will be provided with ongoing support from a dedicated mentor for up to nine months to help them move into education, employment, training or volunteering.
Terry Heenan, 20 from Middlesbrough said: “It’s been an amazing week, from using software to creating apps to exploring art at mima – we’ve been given a chance to improve our skills and confidence to really carve out meaningful careers for ourselves.”
Elvie Thompson, CBNE Programme Manager, explains: “We use our Partnership Investment Fund to help provide new opportunities for children and young people to get involved with arts and culture. We want to target our investment where it will make a real difference to young people’s lives, so we’re delighted to be helping create this new partnership between the Prince’s Trust, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and Teesside University.”
Gemma Dyer, Prince’s Trust Public Sector Partnerships Manager, said: “The Prince’s Trust is thrilled to be working with Culture Bridge North East, mima and Teesside University to bring arts and culture themed Get Started programmes to the Tees Valley. The Prince’s Trust Get Started programme works with young people who face significant challenges including mental health problems and long-term unemployment. Arts based programmes result in dramatic improvements for our young people as it gives them a platform to improve their confidence and develop resilient work ready skills.