The Jump Studio's Journal

Jump Studios Stories: Millicent Grant

April 29, 2021 by Scott Piggott

We sat down and spoke with musician Millicent Grant about her experiences with Jump Studios and how they have impacted her life.

We first met Millie when she joined our Change Creators programme and formed the social action group Hack a Heckle.

In this group, she went on the streets of Barcelona to perform and challenge street harassment.

The social-action music group Hack a Heckle.

After this experience, she also joined our Sound Wave retreat to meet and collaborate with other musicians.

Watch the video now if you want to hear about her experiences about becoming a musician and how her time with Jump Studios has impacted her.

If you would like to see what Millicent has been up, you can follow her on Instagram.

Keep up to date with our journey by following Jump Studios on Instagram and Twitter.

Jump Studios has reopened its doors…

April 22, 2021 by Scott Piggott

A group of young people gather before a ‘Creative Hub’ session on Wednesday afternoons.

As of Monday 19th April, Jump Studios has opened the door again to young people to enjoy the after-school sessions!

We’re back!

This week was special as it marked the first time of 2021 that we opened our doors for young people.

Facilitator Jack and Will assisting three young people on laptops.

Since March 2020, we’ve had to change something we did almost every day at Jump Studios; we’ve stopped being able to deliver after-school sessions in person.

We recently talked about what that experience has been like and how we dealt with the changes, if you want to check out that blog post. But for now, the recent changes in the COVID guidelines meant that we can have young people back in the media centre.

How does it work in-line with the COVID guidelines?

To put it simply, caution!

The current government guidelines allowed us to open our doors from the 8th of March, but with the Easter break looming, we decided it was best to begin the next stage when we had found our feet a little more.

Three young people arriving for the after-school sessions, all wearing masks.

Firstly, we are all regularly tested.

Every member of staff on the Jump Studios team are tested regularly, whether before or during work. This is not just including those working directly with the young people.

In the Jump Studios team, we prefer to use the tests from home before we come into the office each morning.

Secondly, we distance out activities and keep strict guidance on how many young people and staff can be in a room at one time.

Three young people on desks spaced apart at the beginning of a session.

Whilst it does make you wonder whether you’re in an episode of Black Mirror at times, the enforced distancing between us is a necessary hurdle in reopening our doors.

Even in our large studio, where we would once have 30+ young people running wild – we now have brought that right back to a maximum of 6 young people and 2 facilitators.

Thirdly, we wear masks.

It’ll come as no surprise to find that, when you’re not completely in your own space, you are wearing a mask.

That applies for the young people, staff and parents.

A young person wearing a mask during a ‘Maker City’ session.

How has it gone?

This week saw us run Control Alt Delete on Monday afternoon, Maker City on Tuesday afternoon and Creative Hub on Wednesday afternoon.

It has been amazing to let young people back in through the doors and, whilst it is only the beginning, we can already feel a slight buzz around the place.

Knowle West Media Centre is a place that was designed to be a hub for creativity and technology, so it has felt very close to our values.

We’re aware that it must be difficult for the young people, who have to uphold these strange measures throughout their whole day at school before coming to the after-school sessions, but we genuinely get the feeling that the space that we create for them is a return they welcome.

Youth programmer for Maker City, Clara, says: I feels so refreshing to be back in the space with the young people! Especially seeing them create stickers and take them home!

Youth programmer for Control Alt Delete and Creative Hub, Mike, says: It has been so great being back at KWMC. We’ve missed all of the young people and can’t wait to deliver exciting (and safe!) activities with them.

Here’s to next week and many, many more to come!

Youth facilitator Jack, playing guitar with young people.

Our February 2021 Half-Term: Young People Can Make (Virtually)!

February 25, 2021 by Scott Piggott

This half-term, we hosted a series of activities for Young People to get them engaging creatively and engaging with social issues. Over the course of three days, the 10-16 year olds discussed how they want to see their communities change, they learnt design skills, created socially active prototypes and even recorded their own podcast.

What did they get up to?

Just in case you weren’t aware, it’s not particularly easy right now to host our usual half-term programmes in person. So, we’ve adapted to holding the sessions over Microsoft Teams.

At the start of the week, each young person was sent a pack to try and keep them away from their screens for as long as possible – considering how many hours per day of screen-time they are having right now.

*A peak at what was in some of the packs we sent out to the young people.*

The first day was all about opening up the discussions for change.

What changes do the young people want to see in their communities?

Imagine the communities you’re in right now. What changes would you like to see?

“BE POSITIVE not negative” and “UP THE ANTI” stood out as some really positive messaging from the discussions the young people had on the changes they want to see in their communities.

There was strong dialogue around issues in the environment and different forms of discrimination, which really shows just how encouraging the next generation is.

Our second group really focused on environmental issues as their main piece of conversation, which is no surprise considering how big a topic it is today.

Whilst they talked about the need for renewable energy, it was also nice to hear a desire for new places where young people can socialise with one another.

Their Prototypes

With the discussions ongoing, the young people began creating their prototypes that could make a difference.

Here are just a short selection of the prototypes we saw…

A renewable, fit-bit style watch prototype that aims to keep you active.

A 3D Model of a Tea Bag aiming to make them more renewable.

A prototype of a petrol station with no petrol, only renewable electric energy.

But how did they find it?

This was only a sneak-peak of everything the young people got up to during half-term, but how did they find it?

It was really great to see just how much they enjoyed it.

It’s never going to be an ideal situation when they have to sit in their own rooms, rather than be in a creative and engaging environment, but to hear that they are still inspired and having fun is a fantastic sign.