Collection: Good Ideas
Good Ideas: The London music studio giving young people hope, confidence and community
Youth centre closures have left too many of London’s young people without crucial networks of support. Through Sirlute, which offers creative arts programmes, Cambridge Social Innovation Prizewinner JR Josephs aims to give those young people transferable skills they need to achieve their goals.
For JR Josephs, founder of Sirlute, a charity which provides young people in London with creative arts programmes and professional mentoring, ‘at risk’ young people are at risk of being failed by the very people with the means to support them.
Josephs says: “‘At risk’ – I really dislike it. I think there’s more that we need to be doing to protect young people so the whole term ‘at risk’ and ‘hard to reach’ are not necessarily terms that I enjoy to use.”
Sirlute runs a music studio in east London, and uses funds raised by renting the studio out and charitable donations to deliver free creative learning programmes in a range of topics, including music, fashion, filmmaking and game development. It works with young people aged between five and 25 and has partnerships with individuals and organisations in the creative industries to provide further mentorship, work experience, training and employment.
The charity was founded in 2019 and Josephs hopes it helps to plug the gap left by the closure of 30% of London’s youth clubs between 2010 and 2019 because of cuts to local authority funding.
As soon as those youth clubs closed, a lot of trouble started happening in those areas. Some of the younger people that we knew ended up fighting and unfortunately killing each other
Joseph believes the loss of the youth clubs has removed a crucial network of support for young people growing up in east London, as he did. He says: “Just before the youth centres started closing, we used to go to a few in east London, and it was really nice, it was an opportunity to bring people from loads of different areas together, like Bow, Hackney, Wapping, all these different areas. We would share the space to make music.
“As soon as those youth clubs closed, a lot of trouble started happening in those areas. Some of the younger people that we knew ended up fighting and unfortunately killing each other. I don't think it’s the only reason, but I think a big part of it was the fact that the youth clubs closed.”
You have to have believe that tomorrow is a better day
Through Sirlute’s creative learning programmes Joseph hopes to provide young people with transferable life skills, including respect for their peers, time management and following through on commitments. Beyond that, he said the young people the charity works with need the opportunity to feel optimistic about their future.
He says: “It’s sad when you see young people that don’t have dreams because they don’t believe that they can amount to anything because of the area that they come from. Over the years, we’ve been able to work with a lot of those young people and turn their whole perspective around. You have to have belief that tomorrow is a better day.”
It’s sad when you see young people that don’t have dreams because they don’t believe that they can amount to anything because of the area that they come from
Sirlute’s programmes are designed to build young people’s self esteem and engender a sense of belonging, which Joseph said will lead to them being able to apply their new skills in other areas of their lives.
The support of industry experts for Sirlute’s programmes add great value and helps with the development of the young people’s self esteem, said Joseph. He described how on one music programme, there was a young man who had initially been reluctant to attend. A few days into the programme, platinum-selling producers Da Beatfreakz, who have worked with artists including Giggs, Usher, Sean Paul and Ellie Goulding, came to the studio to work with the young people.
Joseph said: “The young player was just, like, hands to his mouth. He couldn’t fathom that they were there, listening to his music. And then they brought some other artists down to the studio who lived in this area. He was 13 or 14 years old. From there, he went on and he’s been making music ever since.”
|
The Cambridge Social Innovation Prize The Cambridge Social Innovation Prize celebrates social impact through business across the UK. It is a prize for mid-career social innovators. Rather than targeting the rising stars or presenting lifetime achievement awards, it recognises those with potential to grow their impact who could use support to get to the next level. It is delivered by Trinity Hall and the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation. Winners of the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize are selected for their achievements and potential in creating positive social impact for individuals and communities in different parts of the UK. These awards are made annually to extraordinary founder-CEOs of scale up social enterprises to support their growth as leaders. The Cambridge Social Innovation Prize includes a £10,000 cash award for personal and professional development. Additionally, mentoring from experts from Cambridge Social Ventures at Cambridge Judge Business School and support from an expanding community of social innovators at Trinity Hall help the winners to develop the skills, resources and networks they need to create more impact.
|
From bootstrapping a charity to studying a PhD
In 2024, Sirlute was a winner of the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize, which includes a £10,000 cash award. The money is specifically for the use of personal and professional development.
Josephs bootstrapped Sirlute when he first founded it, so said he was reluctant to use the money to invest in his own development when he knew how impactful it could be if he put it into the charity.
But, through conversations with the charity’s trustees and others, Josephs realised how effective investing in himself could be for Sirlute. He now plans to take college courses in music production and sound engineering to formalise his existing skills, before applying for a PhD related to Sirlute’s work in supporting young people through the arts.
In my lifetime, I did not think I'd be on Cambridge's radar in any kind of capacity
Josephs is talking to the team at the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation about finding suitable PhD opportunities, and is trying to stay grounded while appreciating that his success with Sirulte has helped catapult him forward with his aspirations for studies in higher education. The centre’s position as part of Cambridge University holds particular significance for Josephs. He says: “In my lifetime, I did not think I'd be on Cambridge [University’s] radar in any kind of capacity.”
By this summer, Josephs hopes Sirlute will have bought a permanent base, to replace its current rented headquarters, which he says will enable the charity to vastly increase its income. In turn, that will allow Josephs to expand the staff team, enabling Sirulte to deliver more programmes. Josephs estimates Sirlute will support 500 young people this year. In 2026, he wants to reach more than 1,000.
This content is brought to you by Pioneers Post in partnership with the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize, a collaboration between Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation and Trinity Hall.
|
|
