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© Lee
Brown / The Big Issue
MAP is a charity that provides creative education, qualifications and first-hand experience to young people at risk of exclusion from the mainstream school system. Through workshops and courses, the charity nurtures, guides and inspires the next generation. Jemima Skala talks to Raf Bogan about the charity’s vision and future.
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n Leeds, everyone knows about MAP charity. In a city with such a big DIY scene, MAP’s mission to offer creative qualifications to students who don’t fit into a mainstream structure resonates with so many of Leeds’ familiar faces. Sitting down to talk with Raf Bogan, MAP’s communications manager, I was excited to talk to one of the proponents of one of Leeds’ best-loved institutions and hear their mission straight from the horse’s mouth. In Raf’s words, “MAP is a Leeds-based arts and education organisation. We’re set up essentially like an alternative school with classrooms and teachers, but we offer creative qualifications to kids who are having a tough time fitting into a mainstream setting.” Residing in Mabgate’s Hope Foundry, MAP provides a haven of education for those who don’t fit into a traditional academic structure,
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allowing children to flourish by creating partnerships between working creatives and MAP’s students. “That’s really important,” Raf stresses, “because our students, who are doing BTECs in creative subjects, can see that the stuff they’re learning has a practical outcome: they’re not just learning about it for learning’s sake.” MAP is assuredly one of the city’s flourishing independent enterprises; they have their heart and ethics firmly rooted in the community, giving back to everyone who helps along the way. It was therefore shocking when, just over a year ago, MAP charity launched a fundraising project with the target of £2.4m: their home in Mabgate was being threatened by a housing development project to turn the stunning heritage building of Hope Foundry into luxury flats.
Nice People Magazine February 2019
