Bringing creativity and the countryside together

Lia Howlett from Cambridgeshire-based charity Young Lives introduces Get Creative Get Afloat, one of the winning projects from the Jubilee People's Millions.

Get Creative Get Afloat is a new and innovative project through which we aim to bring creativity and countryside together via the waterways of Cambridgeshire. We will build a floating multimedia facility that offers all of the benefits of static facilities but with the ability to move from one place to another via the network of rivers in Cambridgeshire.

Imagine spending the day with a group of young people producing and editing a film whilst travelling down the river in the peace and tranquillity of the countryside. Or meeting a group of young people on the quay with a ready-made recording studio at their disposal. Our project will make this image a reality.

We will purchase a steel barge and undertake a conversion project to change this into a state of the art multimedia facility for young people. We will involve members of our local community in selecting the barge, undertaking the conversion project and completing the fit out. We will also work with young people to develop the concept and design and will train volunteers in boat handling and maintenance.

The story so far

Well, there isn’t a lot to tell yet although we have already put a tremendous amount of work into this project, it was all towards winning and securing the funding. The work on the project is only just beginning. We have submitted a short application form to the Big Lottery in February of this year. The idea for this project has been around with us for a little while but we never had the funds to set this up or seen a funding stream we thought would be suitable.

Then the People’s Millions came along. It was perfect. It encouraged different thinking and, looking through previous years’ applications, funded a very wide variety of projects with high focus on facility builds and maintenance. So we decided to give it a try.

We were very excited to get shortlisted and worked very hard to raise awareness of the project and gain support. This was the part where we needed the public’s help and support as the winner was decided by public voting. And the public have been fantastic helping us win.

Winning this project means a lot to us as not only does it help make a difference in so many young people’s lives but it also shows that exciting projects still capture people’s imagination and can still be done regardless of the economic climate.

Find out more

If you would like to find out more and stay in touch with the project, please visit the project’s blog: www.getcreativegetafloat.wordpress.com