Create Leaders
Meeting Life as a Creative Adventure
Meeting Life as a Creative Adventure brought our collaborative leadership approach to young people. It gave 18 to 24 year olds in Gloucestershire space to step back, explore who they are and what matters to them, and think about where they want to go next, with creativity as a way in to ideas and insight.
Small, supported groups met online over six weeks, mixing live sessions with time to reflect in between. We created the programme with our partner nowhere, whose collaborative leadership approach sits at the heart of it, and the first cohort was delivered together with nowhere before we ran it in house. We used creative tools, words, images, music and making, to help people surface thoughts and feelings that can be hard to put into words.
It was free to join, funded by Thirty Percy, with access and carers support so more people could take part, and it was co-led by people who had been through Catalyst. We actively welcomed a diverse group, with a clear commitment to reaching young people too often left out of programmes like this.
Next generation
Brought the Catalyst approach to a new generation, with people who had been through Catalyst helping to lead.
Young people
Ten young people joined the first cohort, with strong attendance right through exam and deadline season, a sign of how much the space mattered to them.
Diversity
Brought together a deliberately diverse group who had deep, meaningful conversations across their differences, and threw themselves into the creative briefs.
Learning
Showed us that reaching young people means going to where they already gather, which led directly to Create Your Future in two local schools.
What we achieved
What came next
What we learned from Meeting Life shaped Create Your Future, taking the work into Forest High in Cinderford and Barnwood Park in Gloucester. Both connect to our Create Leaders pathway and growing alumni community, and to Create Talent, our work opening up creative careers. Explore Create Leaders.
In partnership with nowhere
Catalyst was created with nowhere, and it draws on their collaborative leadership approach. Find out more about nowhere and their wider work.
Watch and read
Hear from young people who took part. One participant called it a “mood 360”. It ran across two cohorts in 2021 and 2022.
Shekinah talks about meeting new people and growing in the group.
Flo answers the question ‘What does creativity mean to you?’
Charlie talks about gaining new insights about himself from the group.
Abs gives us one word to describe his experience of Meeting Life.
Ellie answers the question ‘Is there something in it for you?’
Secon describes Meeting life in her own words.
Get involved
If you are interested in joining us please email Tracey at Create Gloucestershire to arrange a chat in the first instance. And feel free to let us know about any access requirements you may have so that we can make sure the sessions can be right for you.