Get up to £2,000 With Live UnLtd in partnership with SPACE Blackpool

You have a good idea that would be good for you and your friends… you need some money… come to Baristas Coffee Shop Next Tuesday 3rd May at 6pm and apply… read on…

Get up to £2,000 With Live UnLtd in

partnership with SPACE Blackpool

Live UnLtd and SPACE are on the hunt to find some
young people who want to make a difference.

Live UnLtd are offering awards of up to £2,000 to help
11-21 year olds in Blackpool to create positive change in
their community. You will be given help and support to
develop your idea from and Live UnLtd and SPACE (run
not for profit rehearsal studios and events.)

What is it you want to do that would make
a difference to young people in Blackpool?

This is a GREAT opportunity to apply for this grant and to meet
UnLtd and SPACE in preparation for a Dragon’s Den Style
event where eight to ten young people will get the opportunity
to pitch their amazing ideas to a panel.

Applications forms will be provided on the day as well as all the
help you’ll need. You just need to get to

Tuesday 3rd May 2011

Barista’s Coffee Shop

Birley Street, Blackpool, FY1 1DU

At 6pm

For further information about the project please refer to the FAQ
section of our website here: http://www.LiveUnLtd.com/about/
faq or email sean@spacemusic.org.uk

Please share this around so anyone who might be interested gets a chance to see it!

Email me if you have any questions please.

In the meantime here are some cakes.

Muchos grassiass,

Sean

mmmm cakes

Share|

Tags: Blackpool, Blog, CIC, Lancashire, Live UnLtd, Sean McGinty, Social Enterprise, SPACE, SPACE Blackpool, UnLtd Awards
Posted in New music, Social Enterprise | No Comments »

Journalism, accountability and sustainability

Beefage

This is a beef of mine. Councils and public bodies that spend our money are not held accountable locally are they? You get the odd expenses story or when something goes wrong but someone actually trying to find out about the value for money of services councils have delivered never happens. But why is that? When I went to UCLan to study journalism in the early noughties I expected we would be taught about how to investigate not just how to tell the story. It was a disappointment to me that this aspect of journalism seems to be ignored at university courses. I understand why though… the skills of the investigative reporter are not wanted across much of the industry with a few notable exceptions. I want to stress though the course I did at UCLan was a life changer and a wonderful experience but not quite what I expected that’s all.

Answer the question Sean

Why is local journalism not holding the public sector to account?

Well I think it’s because local papers and radio don’t have the time to go through the sheer weight of administration our local public sector produces to find the answers out. Councils have become closed over the years and although you can get a set of accounts they are not much use when you are trying to find out if they are getting value for money in the spending they do.

Also the skills required don’t match those of your average local newspaper/radio/TV journalist plus there is not a huge incentive for anyone to rock the local boat is there? Plus there are many people who could not give a flying fig if their local council are wasting money. This is the other thing missing from this journalism equation… that is passion for the subject and often a real connection with the locality they serve. Let’s face it, it is a cynical and often politically charged business this journalism thing.

SPACE Journalism

So in an effort to address this we will soon be doing some journalism at SPACE on the new website and here and I’ll tell you why. Firstly, journalism is about communicating ideas AND uncovering stories so I hope for the young people that work with us on this that will be a good opportunity for them.

Secondly, I am watching as local councils cut youth services back to the bone because they now have no money. But how good at running these services are the councils? How well did they use the torrents of money that poured into their budgets during the good times? I fail to see the results among young people I know of all that extra spending but I do see where alot of it was wasted on buildings, staff, buying things nobody uses and dumb ideas that never worked.

Campaigning journalism

I could but won’t list half a dozen areas we will look at locally. How come youth services in Blackpool are going to be cut so badly? How did they spend past monies? What were the real outcomes of that spending?

So often I saw money spent that had no impact at all on young people locally yet we as a social enterprise were funding our work ourselves out of our salaries from our day jobs and the small micro business we have created.

F.O.I.s

Due to the way councils hide this kind of information or make it hard to find out, we are going to have to go on a journey into the world of council accounts. Last time I did this I realised just how difficult they make it to understand who spends what and why. We will dig through the numbers, make freedom of information requests and in a positive way shine a light on the performance of local councils.

I am really looking forward to this aspect of our social enterprise because my belief is that it is only through “disruptive change” that we will get better services and facilities for young people. It is not just about throwing money around (we know that from the past) so let’s learn the lessons and ensure when money does come to youth services again that it is spent in an accountable and sustainable way.

If anyone who reads this fancies getting involved with the journalism aspect of SPACE just email us or comment here.

Share|

Posted in New music, Social Enterprise | No Comments »

Gimme the f****** venue!

Yay!

So I heard the other day that after four years of running this social business we call SPACE Blackpool CIC we will, in the next four weeks, have received our first major financial input other than from Aishling (my long suffering wife) and myself. I will say who and what brings us this cash once the paperwork is done and I will thank them and all the others who helped make this happen properly then too.

It is around £35,000 and it will allow us to do so much but this money will be used strictly in a sustainable way.

Zee plans

We will, in February, be getting our current building made fit for the new purpose with a ton of exciting projects to follow. SPACE Music (a new kind of label), gigs, rehearsal studios, events, journalism and a proper venue so that what we do now can grow into something that can change many more lives than we currently do.

Here’s our ethos: To ensure the sustainability of all our projects through the enterprise of the young people we work with.

Four years of social business

I will, when our new website is done, – www.spacemusic.org.uk – post a ton more about how this is all going to work.

I watched When Harvey Met Bob in full last night (the dramatisation of the Live Aid story) and I now take my lead from Sir Bob. So if the council or any other public body have a building they are not using and we can show them we can use for a good social purposes then I will be saying “gimme the f****** building… now!

I have spent four years tip toeing around a council that as a corporate body does not get what social business is. But no more.

No more Mr Nice Guy…

So public bodies of Blackpool – Gimme the f****** venue. You have loads of buildings, stop trying to hide them and flog them off and tell us about your plans. Share what you are doing and get me a building in the town centre in which I can change young people’s lives for the better and make Blackpool a cool place for musicians to come and play.

If you as a council care about the services that young people can access in Blackpool (and because you are about to lay waste to the ones you up to now have delivered) how about some real engagement here?

Talk is cheap

Not doing meetings and enjoying nice chats but actually giving us something real. SPACE doesn’t need or want the council’s money (we never have) but we want the f****** buildings you waste, the f****** equipment sat in storage and the f****** contracts you will no doubt soon be dishing out to people who used to work at the council but will soon not.

I have been the very definition of Mr Nice Guy for 4 years… now I expect answers or I blame, shame and name the people who are in my way.

So I take my lead from Sir Bob Geldof and say in no uncertain terms: get out of my f****** way and let me have a building for that young people’s venue that we need so badly in this town.

After that we’ll talk about how we can help older people while we deliver young people’s services.

Share|

Posted in New music, Social Enterprise | 4 Comments »

The BBC Introducing Lancashire Furtive Forty

Yes… the time has come to consider the best new music of 2010 and with the unabashed and possibly shameless borrowing of an idea (see previous missive) I will present to you at Christmas Time the Furtive Forty. This will found at BBC Lancashire on the BBC Introducing programme with me Sean McGinty.

F.A.Q.

Why call it that? – Because we will play Forty songs in a furtive manner on the 23rd and 30th of December.

What, a great idea

Yes it is.

How do we get involved? – don’t know yet. I’ll think of something.

For now send your suggestions for the BBC Introducing Lancashire Furtive Forty on a postcard or via electronic means .

That’s great

You got it.

New music

Here is some from a young man from Lancashire.

I think he could be big on the hit parade and meet Jimmy Saville.

I present to you…

Oh and this…

And… in from coastal settlement

http://listn.to/EscapeArtist

Like it’s…

Heat vs Light

Share|

Posted in Funny things, New music, Radio, Social Enterprise, Zauwie Beamhead | 2 Comments »

Colloquium update

Well that was really stimulating. How do we deliver services that people want and need in our localities? It is agreed it’s not a top down approach any more.

It was proposed by some of the people that did the spending in the public sector that the last ten years of increased public spending did deliver improved “outputs” but did not deliver better “outcomes.”

Yes I know… try and get your head round that one. In my eyes it is this… more things were done, more boxes were ticked more resources were employed but the result of all this money and effort was limited in terms of improved economic or health chances for those that need it.

No there isn’t a magic wand but it is clear that money is not the answer to health or well-being outcomes.

In essence it was a group of mainly public sector managers being enabled by Local Partnerships to get together and think through some of the challenges we ALL now face in our communities.

You’ve got a train to catch

I am sat in the sumptuous Institute for Civil Engineers up the road from parliament typing this. No free wifi so will post later when i get chance. London is great on such a beautiful day but despite the culture, shopping, attractions etc etc I am still looking forward to getting back to Blackpool.

There’s alot to do now… mainly find some daft stuff to talk about for FNAT for tomorrow night and some great tunes but then to sit down at the weekend and go through my notes from today.

I am really dull I know

Why I have ended up with this obsession I really don’t know. But I have. I am driven now to effect in a teeny tiny way some of the change required to empower young people where I live. Working with partners in Blackpool and Lancashire County Council I hope over time (it will take time) to piece by piece, and stone by stone tear down the bureaucracy and top down approach to looking after our society.

This is not about building a social business of a great size to run huge and equally bureaucratic services. It is about spinning out hundreds of micro business with a social goal. Empowering all of us to look around and see that it is not the council that should do that thing on our street, it is all of us.

The right environment needs to be created though or all we will get (and it is already happening) is a whole raft of councils and PCTs (the same people that haven’t improved outcomes despite all that cash) flipping into the social enterprise sector.

Highlight of the day

For me it was the guy that stood up and showed us graphs and diagrams of how you can measure outcomes. Total BS. I have seen alot of this in the last four years. Yes you can spend weeks “drilling down through the statistics” and plotting ever more colourful diagrams but not from your ivory tower. Get onto street level.

Trust, then enable local people to get stuff done. Yes outcomes have to be measured or you’ll just waste money but in the end real people (who we need if this big society gig is going to flourish) get switched off by all that. It has got us nowhere slowly.

It’s time to empower local people. And when I say local I mean hyper local. Not Health and Well-being Boards (although they will need to be there) but on a street and neighbourhood level.

Please though, public sector people remember that social enterprise is two words. Without that big second word none of this will work.

Share|

Posted in Social Enterprise | No Comments »