Raw’s Ambassadors’ Programme: Empowering Young People To Creatively Grow Our Network

Our ten Young Ambassadors will gain experience collaborating on our marketing initiatives, and have the freedom to explore whichever avenues they please in the process.

At Raw Material, at least half of our programming currently focuses on serving young people’s creative interests. Under the umbrella of “Young Creatives,” we run a series of programmes which enable young people’s personal development - whether that be in audio production, videography, the studio, in illustration or even set design. On these programmes young people can learn from accomplished facilitators, gain access to new resources and opportunities, and join a community of like-minded creative people all at once. We know from the popularity of our programmes that they are of great appeal to young people, and we also know from participant feedback that they are greatly valued as well. On our side, it’s critical that Raw Material does its best to keep things this way, and to continually meet the needs and interests of the growing number of young people who are involved in our programmes.

It will always be a challenge, when working with a diverse and evolving community of young people, to gain a consistent reading of what kind of programmes they would value most. On top of this, we continually aspire to have new and different young people take up a programme at Raw, as this extends the scope of our work. For a small charity with a limited capacity, it’s a lot to be doing both of these things at once, especially as monitoring and evaluating our cohort of members becomes harder the more the cohort grows! At present, our part-time, one-man marketing team is responsible for growing our network by a range of means including through digital and traditional marketing techniques, organisational partnerships and social media. At the same time, participant feedback is gained through our end-of-programme questionnaires, and a degree of community leadership is also made possible by our termly Programming Committee meetings. It’s without a doubt however, that these approaches leave many stones unturned, and that there simply isn’t time in the day to be as effective in our research, marketing and promotion as we otherwise could be.

Enter our Young Ambassadors. Thought up earlier this year, the Young Ambassadors Programme seeks to involve young people more closely in our charity’s work. The task we set the Young Ambassadors, broadly speaking, is to increase Raw Material’s engagement with young people by taking an innovative and collaborative approach to our marketing, promotion and recruitment. These young people will be supported in coming up with their own strategy, working together and achieving the objectives they set themselves. Furthermore, they will also act as a representative sample of young people, upon whom we will be able conduct our own ‘market research.’ In return for their participation, we will offer our Young Ambassadors formal recognition of their work, professional development training, free use of Raw Material facilities and attendance of our events, as well as paid compensation for their time.

Why this programme is perhaps so effective, is that it takes two of our priorities and makes one work in aid of the other. We offer young people a programme that gives them a lot of value in terms of professional experience and personal development, and by design, the programme then brings in more young people to gain the benefits to be found in all of our programmes. This Young Ambassadors Programme recognises the sad reality that perhaps none of us are quite as good at appealing to young people as young people themselves! Likewise, when it comes to speaking on behalf of a large and diverse community of young people, our group of ambassadors, young men and women with ages ranging from 16-25, is perhaps the best group to do so. All in all, our participants will be actively involved in real-world projects that create a tangible impact, all the while gaining valuable skills that will shape their personal and professional growth.

The first meeting of the Young Ambassadors is scheduled to take place at the end of September in our new premises on Talma Rd.