PROJECT X's BACKGROUND

"‘WHY ME?"

"Why this why that, good, bad, right and wrong. The question remains the same,

but just as powerful as if you scribbled it in blood on a broken mirror. Though

Bad times are tough and good times are rare, strength n the worst of times

transforms the biggest of losses into the greatest of openings."

Ever since I had an opportunity to come up with ideas for a project or had the chance to create a plan for a business, I have always wanted to run a company that hosts creative youth centres in the hope to make a positive difference in communities that have been or are being effected by cuts in services which have resulted in poverty and crime - Especially gang violence and knife crime.

My biggest inspiration for this is SPUD, I have spoken many times about this social enterprise business that I have seen with my own eyes and have been inspired by it ever since. From the outside and getting to know SPUD I knew that they were a very positive business, it wasn't for profit, it was for developing young peoples skills and portfolios and for them to have the chance to do something productive that will be made and developed into something real. This is the main point of SPUD and through this they have become very successful. Until I starting digging deeper and asking the right questions I soon realised that this social enterprise business wasn't just a charity, it made good money, it won awards and the 'owner', the front man makes good money - Of course a lot of hard work and effort it involved, but making good money? From a business that gives so much back and is so positive to society? What is not to love?

At this stage in my life when I was more involved with SPUD I was also learning more and more about knife crime, gang violence, where it comes from how it thrives in society if certain measures are not taken to prevent it from happening. I have always listened to drill, personally I really like the genre, many people don't and I respect that, its like any other music genre, some like it some don't. Liking drill then made me notice the talent these young individuals have, but sadly, from this I also began to realise how many of these talented artists were dying due to knives, general gang violence and the life that they were having to live.

There are many reasons that effect the crime levels in a society, drugs, service cuts, lack of government intervention, social factors - It is a very deep problem that needs to be fixed.

So from this my idea of a creative youth centre where young people who want to escape the 'road' life could come and use facilities such as music studios, computers etc. to develop ideas and create 'products' that they can take away and build into a business or brand or music album - Anything that they want to do, but dont have the chance to due to the cuts in funding for youth services etc.

In first year of university we had a chance to conceptualise a campaign about, well, anything that we wanted and I chose a campaign that could involve such a project called 'WHY ME?' a campaign that revolves around the idea of creating a positive from a negative, turning bad into good - Drill artists live a very hard life in our society having to deal with massive issues such as crime, death, law enforcement and those aren't even the issues that normal young people face that we all know about, friends, loss, anxiety's etc. But through all these negatives, a positive outlet in the form of music creates those 'down times' into a bright path that could lead them on to a better life.

Here are some slides from the 'WHY ME?' presentation, there are similarities in what I want to be doing with 'PROJECT X' but in far less detail and a lot more vague.