Hastings Creative Summer

Hastings Creative Summer was a five-week festival held in August 2018 to support young people aged 11-18 who lacked access to digital media, funded mainly via Broadening Horizons/Hastings Opportunity Area monies from East Sussex County Council (central government funding to 12 towns with challenging local economies), plus Love Hastings (the local Business Improvement District) and in-kind support from White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures (Rock House and Hastings Library) and the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

To inform young people in the local area who lack access to digital media about careers in Creative Media, provide information/inspiration for GCSE or A-level choices, boost Hastings' reputation as a place where young people can access employment and improve themselves, and widen young people's access to digital skills.

The programme included Media Slam sessions (eight days of different digital skills events led by experts), a Business Accelerator teach-in for young entrepreneurs, a Virtual Reality storytelling event, a two-day documentary digital photography workshop, two one-day music tech and games sound design workshops, two digital textile design and screen-printing events, and a Creative Mystery Tour (a two-hour insight into creative-industry jobs where young people met media experts and digital businesses in their workplaces).

There was evidence that young people involved were more aware of services in their local area, and the majority of attendees engaged in an activity they had never done before. The total project budget was £12,500.

The intervention's target group (e.g. children with SEN, children from single-parent families) is likely to exist in other locations; the model addresses long-term economic stagnation in Hastings while increasing attendees' employability and civic participation, and would presumably work anywhere with an existing level of creative industry to set up activities and demonstrate business potential.