Who we are About us
Lawrence Batley Theatre is the home of live performance in Kirklees and a registered charity. Each year we host over 450 performances, workshops and events. More than 70,000 people enjoy our annual programme both in our theatre and within the community. Community is at the heart of what we do. Over 3,000 local people each year enjoy our creative sessions. Our sessions nurture confidence and promote pride in the community.
We are a small local charity that helps charities, community and voluntary groups, and social enterprises in Kirklees to grow and develop, and make great things happen. We do this by offering free support, advice and training and creating partnerships, trust and collaboration. We are the accredited Volunteer Centre for Kirklees and match people who want to volunteer with organisations looking for volunteers and we advocate for high quality and inclusive volunteering.
Kirklees Year of Music took place in 2023 and celebrated the district’s world class music and rich and diverse musical heritage. Led by Kirklees Council; it reached thousands of residents and visitors through a programme of live events and programmes.
Future Creative was a volunteer programme for 16–24 year olds which supported Kirklees Year of Music and other creative events within Kirklees. The programme aimed to reach young people from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds and forge new alliances within the creative and voluntary sector in Kirklees.
4 podcasts were created which are now out on music platforms such as Apple Music/ Spotify, leaving a legacy of the project and aiming to encourage other young people to get involved in volunteering.
We engaged 75 young people as Future Creative volunteers, and a further 109 volunteered through partner projects that we supported.
A huge 1,687 volunteer hours were completed as part of the programme.
We worked with 38 creative partner organisations, many for the first time and our volunteers supported 85 different events across Kirklees including Festivals, Theatre, Exhibitions, Workshops and Parades.
What has this meant for partners involved?
Future Creative has enabled us to grow our volunteering network to support the creative sector in Kirklees and develop good practice in relation to delivering inclusive volunteering. We were able to test innovative approaches to engaging young people in flexible, event- based volunteering. We now have a stronger network of creative organisations offering high quality volunteering, who we are continuing to work with.
Creative organisations have been able to gain support from volunteering specialists and increase the diversity of their volunteer teams.
Thank you so much for all your help and support with Slaithwaite Moonraking 2023. The feedback we have had has been overwhelmingly positive.
Sky Burton, Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival
Each and every one of the Future
Creatives have been an incredible asset to the team, helping existing stewards to deliver their role to the highest standards. You are all so personable, smiley, helpful and willing to learn –exactly the kind of people we love here at Lawrence Batley Theatre!
Mollie Wood, Duty Manager at Lawrence Batley Theatre
What did we learn, that can be shared with others?
– It took longer than we expected to set up a brand-new volunteer programme and reach our target audience.
– We recruited a Programme Co-ordinator who was also a young person who had experience of volunteering in the creative sector so was a great advocate and provided valuable insight.
– Using friendly and accessible language when promoting volunteering, particularly at the recruitment stage, was very important.
– A slimmed down recruitment process worked well and was an important factor in the success of the project, along with the flexibility of the volunteering.
– The Volunteero app was user friendly and accessible for our Volunteers and easy and convenient for us to keep track of the wide range of volunteering activity across different sites and with multiple partners.
– Event-based volunteering opportunities with people were much more popular with our Volunteers than digital/remote volunteer tasks.
– A lot of project staff time was spent supporting volunteers with disabilities and additional needs (especially mental health needs) to ensure they felt safe and supported.
– Volunteers liked wearing the branded hoodies and feeling part of a team.
– Identity was important to Volunteers and knowing they were going to be accepted and feel safe in the environments they were volunteering.
– Transport was a big barrier as the vast majority of volunteers were using public transport which was often unreliable. We organised taxis for evening volunteering to ensure volunteers got home safely.
– Reimbursing volunteer expenses including travel and meal costs was very important as many of the Volunteers couldn’t have taken part otherwise.
– Volunteers valued the certificates we created for them, outlining their achievements and also the job references we offered.
– It was important that celebration and recognition events were planned with the Volunteers so that we thanked them in an appropriate way.
The Impact for Future Creative Volunteers
Many of our volunteers have made progress in their lives during the programme such as gaining employment, apprenticeships, internships, skills bootcamps and more regularly volunteering because of the impact of Future Creative:
– 15 of our volunteers have moved on to volunteer more regularly.
– We have supplied job references for 10 Volunteers and 3 volunteers are now in full time employment.
– 11 volunteers have been involved in other creative internships / courses / skills bootcamps including with Screen Yorkshire and the Academy of Live Technology.
Feedback from Future Creative volunteers also highlighted the positive health and wellbeing impacts of volunteering in a supportive environment, and the opportunity to grow in confidence and build connections:
I was really nervous wondering if this is for me when I have been at home for so long, meeting people again after COVID, it was quite anxious for me. But now if I see an event, I sign up immediately...it’s like a little family really. Iqra
One of the main reasons I started volunteering was just to get me out of the house, get me talking to people, doing new things. Volunteering has definitely helped me to be more open, be more myself. It has given me confidence to do things that I just would never have considered before. Luke
Our thanks to:
All Future Creative volunteers
The Future Creative Project Board
Our creative partners:
AME
CK Careers
Conscious Youth
Dark Horse Theatre
Edgeland Arts
Ella Dawson Foundation
Globe Arts Studio
Grand Northern Ukelele Festival
Holmfirth Arts Festival
Holmfirth Civic Hall
Hoot Creative Arts
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
Huddersfield Literature Festival
Kirklees Year of Music
Kirklees Youth and Music
Local Services 2 You- Youth Voice
Musica Kirklees
Onwards Festival
Paradigm Film
Proper Job Theatre
Radio Sangam
Sangam Festival
Silkwood Studio
Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival
The Jam Factory
The Watershed Thread Republic
University of Huddersfield
West Yorkshire Print Workshop
WOVEN
Xclusive Club at The Crescent Youth Social CiC
Future Creative was funded by the Volunteering Futures programme, which was managed by Arts Council England and funded by DCMS through National Lottery Project Grants.