Our Coalfields Community Investment Programme has been supporting a youth radio station to help takeover Sutton in Ashfield’s unemployment issues.
In July 2018, Sutton Youth Radio were awarded £7,897 to hire experienced project leader Adrian Rayworth to recruit trainees aged between 18 to 25 years old for ten months, as well as purchase new recording equipment.
Over 15 different students learnt how to produce radio content to an industry standard by carrying out a range of different journalistic tasks working in professional newsrooms.
Adrian Rayworth, project leader, said: “Each participant when they first joined the project were all very shy and lacking in confidence, but after a few weeks they all really started to blossom and become more confident in themselves.
“Many became more involved with Takeover by being allocated more hours and taking on larger roles such as interviewing locals, producing podcasts for shows to a high standard and promoting the station as they were proud to be a part of the organisation.”
This Life Skills project lasted for 12 weeks for each new trainee, who improved employability skills such as writing, speech, I.T and punctuality through two hours one to one sessions each week.
One recruit who benefitted a lot from the project is Corey, who despite having a strong skillset when it came to practical tasks, struggled with his ability to communicate confidently due to a learning disability.
Life Skills helped change his outlook by giving him the chance to lead on his own podcast, in which he had to assemble his own research and find a way to present this to an audience in an engaging way.
Corey is now no longer the shy person he once was, and has since helped out as an adult volunteer at the station assisting with community events and open broadcasts.
Another young recruit, Ashley, found the motivation to secure full-time employment at a major high-street chain after improving his punctuation, spelling, writing and presentation skills.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s employment bulletin stated that the unemployment rate for 18‐24 year olds was 10.4 percent in the three months to January 2019. This means there were 409,000 unemployed young people aged from 18 to 24.
Sutton Youth Radio has been supported by the Coalfields Community Investment Programme for over five years, and also received funding of £10,000 back in October 2015 to help pay the salary of a project leader for an alternate project.
They also receive free guidance as members of our Practical Support service, including face to face meetings with our Development Managers who share their expertise and act as a critical friend.
To learn more about Sutton Youth Radio, and how to listen to their broadcasts, visit their website: https://www.takeoverradiosutton.com/.