Creative YOUCreativity is everywhere. Opportunity is not. We are part of the solution. The secret is in our name. Every year Creative Youth Network gives thousands of young people a taste and thirst for the arts and culture and the joy, life-skills and opportunity they bring. But we want more. Creative YOU is our campaign showcasing how we, you and the engaged, emerging and amazing young creatives we support, come together. We want to reveal how, together, we are ambition, quality, cultural democracy and social mobility in action. Every young person deserves the right to access creativity and development opportunities in the creative and cultural industries. It all starts with education. If all young people have access to creative subjects in school, then talented young people from all backgrounds can pursue their passion, develop crucial skills needed in so many industries and improve their wellbeing. 1. Pledge Add your name and join the many people passionate about bringing creativity back into our schools. With all the pledges we’ll be reaching out to headteachers in Bristol and the South West. We hope this will encourage local academies to give more space to creativity in their curriculum. Bristol, being the creative city we know and love, can pave the way for other regions to do the same, showcasing the true value of creativity. PLEDGE 2. Sign up Join us by signing up to our newsletter where we share best practice of how to support young people. sign up 3. Find out more Join us by reading and sharing our CreativeYOU report which shows how our work brings opportunities for creative expression and enables young people to explore their talent, regardless of background or circumstance. Download our Creative YOU report Leeza Awojobi Leeza started her career in the arts on our Creative Futures programme. She is now running poetry workshops, has been commissioned to write a spoken word piece with young people and has released two films, programmed at SPARK festival at Tobacco Factory Theatre. I’m Leeza Awojobi and I’m 24. I was on the Creative Futures programme at CYN. At the time, I was at a place where I hadn’t developed into poetry seriously, I had just quit a door to door marketing job and didn’t know what to do. I spoke with a friend about my worries and fears of the unknown from having a career in the arts. Due to by background I’d been told that it wouldn’t ever be a proper job with a good salary. She suggested I sign up to ACE newsletters, which is where I saw the Creative Futures programme. It was at just the right time for what I needed. I needed someone to direct me. The main way it helped me, was it exposed me to other artists in the industry and in Bristol, who are producing amazing work and getting paid for it. It opened me up to networks to be able to make a start. It gave me an opportunity to make and produce my own work and receive a commission for it. Since then, I’ve been running programmes of poetry workshops, which I have really enjoyed as I’ve been able to build my skill set and share it with others. I’ve worked on other pieces including ‘Held in our Pockets’ and continued to write. I’ve also explored what my poetry might look like in film form, which led me to release two films. My work has been programmed in the SPARK festival at Tobacco Factory Theatre, and I’ve spoken on the panel at the Future Proof conference for Visual Arts South West regarding support for emerging practitioners. I’ve started studying again and have been thinking about how I want to take my career further post my MA in Comparative Literatures and Culture. I think, last year, when I was doing ‘A meal around Bristol’, working with the poetry group who were mainly made up of OAP’s, this was significant as it made me realise that I always want an element of real human interaction in my poetry. We ate sandwiches and we spoke. It was significant for me. Aside from the Creative Futures programme, Creative Youth Network has helped me through the alumni networking lunches and by having a good structure in place to allow things to happen. I’ve met people who’ve led me to new work. Creative Youth Network are always posting, sharing and following up with opportunities. They’re good at thinking about who would be good or enjoy certain projects and putting them in touch with one another. From other young artists to organisations and paid opportunities. “I think part of being human is being creative. To use it as a point of connection with other people. If I didn’t have that I think I would be less human.” Website: www.eyesandoath.com Email: [email protected] Instagram: @eyesandoath If you'd like to support young artists such as Leeza, donate now: Please select a donation amount (required) £15 Could provides a young carer an evening of fun activities, taking a break from their caring responsibilities £30 Could provide hot meals for 50 young asylum seekers and refugees to eat together during our weekly sessions £50 Provides a 1:2:1 session for a young person struggling with their mental health with one of our trusted youth workers Other Set up a regular payment Donate Manage Cookie Preferences How can we help?