Post on 10-Jul-2015
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www.blastbeat.org
ChangemakersBe the change you want to see
in the world of education
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What is Blastbeat?
Blastbeat is a fun, music & business programme for teenagers. The
programme features 2 competitions in 1 – a business competition for
young social entrepreneurs, and a music competition for young, original
musicians. Blastbeat is a registered UK Charity.
• Students form their own Event Social Enterprise (ESE) and organise
a concert.
• Local, young musicians receive a chance to perform in a safe,
alcohol & drug-free environment.
• 25% of the profit made is donated to local charities or causes of
their choice.
• The best ESE wins £2000 seed capital, & £1000 for their school.
This encourages development of business skills, social responsibility &
musical talent.
What’s the appeal?
Blastbeat’s innovative and exciting format appeals to all stakeholders:
• Blastbeat very effectively captures the attention of the student
demographic, traditionally very difficult to engage… whilst teachers,
parents, and all stakeholders appreciate its proven excellent
learning experience.
• Blastbeat is a life changing experience, but also fun, cool & very
relevant to students - they learn a variety of life & work skills while
growing in self-confidence.
•The programme leverages teens’ key lifestyle interests of music &
event promotion.
• Has proven exceptional at engaging with otherwise disaffected
teenagers in the learning process, helping to address the issue of
teenage dropout in a concrete, sustainable way.
Education
Social Entrepeneurship Music
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Positive results and feedback
The Head Teacher…
“Blastbeat has helped our students come within the top 5% in the
country. I strongly recommend Blastbeat - it serves a very important
part of the work related curriculum.”
Sue John, Head Teacher, Lampton School, Hounslow
The Student…
“It has been my main reason for getting up at 7am every day to be at
school on time… Blastbeat is the best thing that has ever happened
to the school and I wholeheartedly hope that it carries on the good
work of teaching kids how to make a step up in life.”
Dan Goss, CEO of Hi-Fi ESE, Leytonstone School
The Success Story
“Blastbeat has much more credibility among students as being
a ticket to their own future. It is leadership training through the
universal language and enterprise of music. Blastbeat gave me a
start in the music industry and I now have a real and blossoming
career at the age of 22.”
Blastbeat alumnus Charlie Arme
Senior A&R Manager, B-Unique Records (Kaiser Chiefs, etc.)
“If organisations want to speak to, and connect with the youth
generation these days, they need to finds way of incorporating
music into their development projects”
Carl J. Schramm, CEO, Kauffman Foundation
“The fact is that in the twenty first century, jobs and competitiveness
depend absolutely on the very qualities like creativity and
independent thinking that school systems are being forced to tramp
down... Yet businesses everywhere are saying they need people
who are creative and can think independently.”
Sir Ken Robinson - 2009
Blastbeat’s reach
Since its launch in 2003, Blastbeat’s reach has extended significantly and
is set to expand further. Robert Stephenson, music industry veteran &
award winning social entrepreneur, founded Blastbeat in 2003.
• Produced the UK gig leading to U2’s record deal, March 1980.
• Gave many young and successful artists and bands their start.
To date, Blastbeat has engaged over 10,000 students in Ireland, the UK,
South Africa, the United States, Slovakia, Belgium and Japan. Blastbeat
reached 250 Greater London schools and colleges in 2010, aiming to
increase to 1,200 by July 2012.
Last year’s finals were held at the O2 Arena, July 2010:
• Over 12,000 students participated.
• Guest performances by The Saturdays, Tinchy Stryder, The Wanted,
Elisa Doolittle, Twenty Twenty, and 8 Blastbeat winning acts.
• Plans are in place for a Blastbeat Rocks TV / IPTV series to be
broadcast nationally in 2011/12.
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Volunteering and costs
The volunteering requirement is only for 2 hours a month, for 3 months,
with travel times to the school – plus some optional after-hours
attendance at a gig or two.
The cost of Changemakers is £7k per school, per year, before a charitable
tax deduction. One company can elect to mentor and sponsor as
many schools as they like to run Blastbeat, or share costs with other
businesses in the community as part of our Co-operative Sponsorship
model.
Corporate mentoring
In order to achieve our mission, we are seeking to build links with
corporate mentors
Blastbeat is The BIG SOCIETY In ACTION. Our mission is to:
• Develop new and exciting education programmes for young people,
helping them to learn necessary life, social & business skills in ways
that are fun & relevant to their interests.
• Form a sustainable social entrepreneur youth movement &
community of young Changemakers united for common good in a
fun, cool way.
• Empower youth communities to tackle social, educational and
environmental issues.
• Make a real improvement in students’ learning abilities, school
attendance, application & results.
The next step:
Link students with corporate mentors & companies to help them in
their journey to become creative social entrepreneurs and/or exemplary
employees.
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Participation and sponsorship
Blastbeat Changemakers will comprise of participation and sponsorship:
Mentoring
Companies can select a partner school of their choice, or Blastbeat will
match them up.
• We will provide free training for those who wish to take part, as well
as a Blastbeat mentor throughout the programme.
• Employees visit the school for 1 hour a fortnight and engage in
mentoring sessions over 3 months.
Sponsorship
• Participating companies each donate £7,000 for one year, either
individually or as a co-operative.
• This sum covers the cost of running the programme in one school
and helps to fund the music competition.
Event - the Concert
• Employees can organise a fundraising inter-company battle of the
bands (optional).
• Money raised can go towards the sponsorship fee…
• … or they can use the money to fund additional engagement with
their partner school.
• All mentors can also attend the students’ UK final at the end of
the year.
Benefits for Participating Companies
Involvement in Changemakers will be hugely beneficial for4 key reasons…
1. Employee engagement
• Mentoring Schemes boost corporate morale.
• According to the team-based employee volunteering survey
published in Business in the Community (BITC) last year, 97% of
staff feel it is important that their employer supports volunteering
during working hours.
“You can see children changing in front of your eyes, you can see them
doing something that they enjoy, and you can see our consultants
as they work with the children doing something that they enjoy.”
- Richard Verity, Partner & VP, Booz & Co, Oct 2010.
2. New skills
Mentoring students is an ideal way for employees to develop skills
relevant to their workplace, including team building, inspiring and
leading, motivating, empowering and communicating.
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Benefits (cont’d)
3. Fostering the next generation of workers
• Active, results-orientated involvement in preparing young people for
the workplace.
• Bringing CSR to life in an innovative, exciting way.
• Building bridges between schools and the corporate world.
• Deep integration into the local community.
4. Brand building and public image
• Involvement in a scheme like Blastbeat will be a differentiating,
valuable HR resource when recruiting, e.g. graduates.
• Enhanced PR, marketing and client relationship opportunities
through participation.
• Blastbeat provides good media coverage and brand awareness on
TV, radio, press, and all social media.
Are you interested?
Blastbeat now seeks host companies for Blastbeat Changemakers.
• With your help, Blastbeat aims to help local businesses become
involved with schools, colleges and youth groups in your community.
• We will seek to engage with host companies through a series of
Blastbeat presentations and discussions.
•Together, we can redefine the way young people learn about
business and enterprise.
•There is great ROI for businesseses from excellent HR, PR, & CSR
opportunities.
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Having first heard about Blastbeat at a presentation in the House, I am
wholeheartedly supporting this initiative, initially by introducing
Blastbeat to the commercial and academic communities in my
constituency, which I trust will draw attention to the value to this
excellent programme and initiative and encourage uptake.
Mr. Nick Hurd MP,
Minister of State for Civil Society,
Feb 2011
Engaging with a school through Blastbeat is tremendously entertaining,
you can see children changing in front of your eyes... it really matters to
the quality of our own working existence that we have engagements like
Blastbeat... we are a much more cohesive office as a result of working
with Highbury Grove School and Blastbeat.
Mr Richard Verity
Vice President & Partner
Booz & Company
London
Testimonials
I confirm that the programme that Blastbeat offer is extremely high-
quality. The programme is also educationally robust, and a great deal of
thought has been put into how a number of aspects of the curriculum
are being delivered in schools through the programme. This makes
it attractive to teachers too, as they can easily plug Blastbeat into a
number of areas of the curriculum. The primary version of the programme,
Blastbeat Prime, whilst relatively new, also looks very exciting; it had
clearly made a significant impact on pupils’ attitude to school and they
were clearly extremely impressed.
I have found Robert and his team great to work with. Their passion for
Blastbeat is infectious and their flexible, ‘can do’ attitude means that
Blastbeat is excellent for re-engaging young people who may be at risk
of dropping out of education. Robert and his team have worked in some
very deprived wards across London, and because Blastbeat reaches out
to young people and engages them on their own terms about things that
interest them, it channels their enthusiasm
in ways that other areas of the curriculum are less able to do. The
testimony from the students that have been on the programme is really
quite moving – in some cases, it really does seem to have been a life-
changing event.
Dr Jim Magee – Dept for Education
Education Strategy and Improvement Group
2nd Floor, Sanctuary Buildings
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Contact
Robert Stephenson
Email: robert@blastbeat.org
Phone: +44 (0) 786 312 2230
Dan Morgan
Email: dan@blastbeat.orgPhone: +44 (0) 790 534 9313
Blastbeat is a registered charity Charity number: 1136121