Bristol Beacon: Different Beginnings * Creative Lives Awards 2022 - England Runner-up and Peer Award for Excellence * Find out more about this group in this short video, or read about them below: Bristol Beacon has been involved in supporting young children in care and care leavers’ creativity through its Hope Creative programme for nearly 10 years. The programme has youth voice at its very core, and young people and care leavers curate and co-devise the content, suggest project ideas and lead activities. During 2022, care leavers proposed the idea of recording their own album, and ‘Different Beginnings, The Album Project’, was born. Nineteen care leavers participate in the sessions, seven of which are also on the steering group that makes decisions on next steps for the project. The group assigned each other roles: songwriting, logo designing, sound, lighting, writing and production, event planning - they also identified support and training needs. From there, they attended regular songwriting sessions and created artwork for the album cover. The album is due for release online with a live event, organised and produced by care leavers, set for early 2023. “Taking part in Different Beginnings gets me out of the house, there are people to chat to which makes me feel less lonely and it’s a confidence booster.” Participant ‘“I feel as if the sessions are focused on my creative ideas.” Participant “It’s so great to hear the creative ideas the care leavers put forward and watch them turn those ideas into actual pieces - be that artwork, music composition or lyric writing. All of the pieces have such deep meaning and a lot of the care leavers are using this as a way to communicate what they have been through.” Lu Bristow-Goldschmidt, Bristol Beacon [Pictured L to R: Jess Plant, Creative Lives; Abigail Scott Paul, LEEDS 2023; Stitch, Different Beginnings; Star, Different Beginnings; Scarz, Different Beginnings] Learn more www.bristolbeacon.org https://www.facebook.com/BristolBeacon Twitter - @Bristol_Beacon Instagram @bristol_beacon YouTube @bristobeacon Manage Cookie Preferences