Skills and Enterprise Support
The project has offered around 1000 sessions of free training and business advice to over 800 individuals. This has included innovative specialist and bespoke training to exploit the skill development and business opportunities offered by festivals and community events. The courses and support have included business planning and management, event planning and management courses, a wide range of carnival skills courses, working with film and music programmes and support in business development. These have empowered individuals to use festivals and events to start up new enterprise, test business ideas, increase income or develop established micro enterprises. Mainstreaming has taken place on a number of initiatives, including the fundraising course at City University, ‘Revealed’ courses at LB Southwark, Carnaval del Pueblo briefing sessions/support to stallholders and to float/artistic groups. In addition, Circus Media is developing new opportunities for training in filming live events and Carnaval del Pueblo, LB Southwark and Southwark College continue to work together as a a tri-partite network to continue/mainstream carnival courses. In all cases, the approach to provision to address identified needs of target groups is informing thinking about how such support is offered: for instance GLE One London now have a commitment to keeping community language advisors in post.
Action Research
Research has been a thread throughout the project, from the initial fieldwork to ongoing and detailed evaluation of the project's services and courses. A Research Fellow was appointed at City University to design and coordinate the wider research programme which set out to construct a narrative of the process of course development, leading to recommendations for best practice. As part of this work, a detailed picture has been built of the economic and organisational functions of the partner festivals over the period of the project. It has developed a deeper understanding of the variety of ways in which festivals and carnivals are used by those involved. Specific pieces of work commissioned as part of the research wing of the project include a festival mapping study, an economic impact study of Carnaval del Pueblo and the Baishakhi Mela and specific research into newly arrived Latin Americans in London. This focus on research, as well as informing the project as it has developed, has raised awareness across the partnership of the value of monitoring, evaluation and budgetary management, (both in terms of techniques but also in building a greater understanding of use), supporting development of organisations, especially the festivals, in the long term.
Capacity Building
The event organisers have been enabled to undertake additional capacity building activity by drawing on skills and networks of partners and connections with other bodies such as the GLA, local councils and ESF, whose names lend weight and prestige. Carnaval del Pueblo 2007 saw a huge success with estimated visitor numbers up 20% and a greater range of ‘mainstream’ media coverage. In turn, they have been able to use this experience in coaching other community organisations and have worked with groups to support development particularly in cases where literacy and English language skills are limited. A specific piece of research around access to employment and enterprise for newly arrived Latin Americans in London was commissioned which directly supported all this work. Celebrating Enterprise also sponsored informal workshops which encouraged skills transfer and peer-to-peer training as part of the practical process of developing entries for the parade. The Latin American Community Arts Initiative website is up and running and will continue to be supported by a management committee to enable individual and arts group development. The Baishakhi Mela 2006/07 was selected to support growth and capacity building activity and interventions by LB Tower Hamlets and an impact study commissioned for the project have informed this. Several small businesses have emerged from the project; for instance Praxis have offered the space for a catering business to grow and develop his business and continue to offer this ‘action learning’ approach to support individuals they work with.
Networking and Dissemination
Throughout the project, research has generated critical discussion about issues raised in a range of policy and research events. Learning and development events have taken place for sub-sectors, including traders at festivals, festival organisers, float groups and performers, as well as across the partnership itself. On a national level, the DP has built relationships with agencies and key stakeholders (political and sector policy makers) across the cultural and education sector and events were organised to take forward findings in the dissemination period. These have included regular communications with the LDA and the GLA events team, regular communications with staff at Arts Council, local cultural development agencies (e.g. CIDA) and new links with NESTA, LOCOG, skills agencies and others. The main events to launch project findings and lessons were an academic conference, a practitioner conference and a small scale senior policy event with Demos which reached over 250 people. Reports and training guides were launched at these three events and policy implications, along with all research and publications, are on the project website. Discussions are underway about how the networks created through the project continue to meet and take forward learning from the project.
Transnational work
Celebrating Enterprise was also part of a transnational partnership with organisations in Belgium, Greece, Italy, Poland and Portugal carrying out parallel delivery and research projects exploring innovative ways of breaking down barriers to business creation and enterprise development. The transnational working included leadership of the Festival Markets working group which shared practice about practical set up for people wishing to trade in a festival context, resulting in the production of a paper and DVD ‘toolkit’ for traders. This has been well received across the partner countries and in the UK has been used by partners and also for local authority and FE training sessions. The products from the Finance and Enterprise working group are also in use across the partner organsiations and members of this group, and the transnational partnership as a whole, are continuing to meet to share learning and plan for colllaborative projects in 2008.
