Is a new initiative set up by Quiet Storm.
The idea: to work with young people affected by violence, specifically gun and knife crime, helping them to envision creative solutions to the situations they find themselves in, and empowering them to put these solutions into practise...so demonstrating to society the untapped potential they have to offer, and maybe inspiring them to pursue a career in the creative industries as well.
Why? Because it's better to do something than just talk about the problem.
To kick things off, we ran a competition with kids at Lambeth Academy (close to where Billy Cox was shot last year), who were asked to write a short film about the consequences of gun crime. Throughout the process, those taking part where mentored by Lambeth-born QS founder and CD Trevor Robinson, and other QS creatives.
The winning script, 'A mother's Tear' was written by Jaron Williams and Alimur Rahman, with QS then producing and directing the film with their input (because we felt it was important to make this more than just a theoretical class room exercise).
You can see it on the CnH website in a bit more hi-def, or over at Youtube...
Here's a news report from Sky...
Given the interest generated, and doors opened, by actually doing something, new projects and opportunities are stacking up, so watch this space.
But we are always on the look out for more help and involvement...
- PROJECTS: key to CnH is having live projects to work on, things that will actually get made. So if you can provide a 'canvas' (metaphorically or even literally) upon which kids can develop creative solutions to the challenges they face, let us know.
- DONATIONS: some projects will come with funds attached. Others won't. So if you have money (charitable donations always welcomed!), time, or practical skills to offer, again let us know. For instance, we couldn't have made this film without crew, editors etc. giving time for free.
- MENTORS: when it comes to film or print, we are well within our comfort zone when it comes to working directly with kids. But if we start to run multiple projects, we will need more mentors. And there may well be opportunities in areas such as fashion design or architecture which definitely need specialist involvement. So you know what to do.
Anyway, all very exciting. And a nice change from just selling stuff.
